by Dianna Love
“You do not understand the rules of Mitnal. You must ask to enter, but not to leave. If you enter without asking, you will regret it once Hanhau has his hands on you. But, if you escape Mitnal on your own, Hanhau will not hunt for you, because his power would not be as strong beyond the limits of Mitnal.”
“He’d just let someone go?” Storm hadn’t caught any hint of a lie in that, but he had a hard time believing a demonic ruler would be so cavalier about an escapee.
Nadina lifted her chin at the challenge to her words. “Hanhau does not want to return a runaway to his world who will create problems with his demons by showing them how to escape. Besides, he knows that once a demon has belonged to him, that demon will not be fit to live among humans. The death and destruction an escaped demon wreaks in the natural world is enough to appease him.”
“What about his hold over you and your possessions?”
“All deals with Hanhau end the minute I am free of Mitnal by escaping, because my agreement with him was bonded in Mitnal. If I manage to escape on my own, I break my tie to Hanhau. If that happens, I am free and my possessions once again belong to me as long as I remain in the mortal realm or some place other than Mitnal.”
The guy must have a league of attorney demons to keep up with the fine print in contracts like that one.
Again, nothing Nadina said touched off Storm’s internal lie detector. But if he did this, he couldn’t stay in Mitnal very long. To do so would risk Storm involuntarily shifting and turning fully into a demon that would very likely rival any Hanhau currently owned.
Storm asked, “How long will it take to get in and out?”
“We will enter the minute you request passage into Mitnal and, if we are able to escape, we can do so and be back in this world in less than a day.”
“How long is a day in Mitnal?” Storm had concerns over staying for even a few hours.
Nadina explained, “There is no way to tell time in Mitnal, but you will know a day has passed here in the mortal world when Hanhau shuts down to regenerate his powers. That is only for what feels like ten minutes. He shares his power with his demons, which constantly depletes him. Then he has to draw new power from Mitnal itself. That short break is the only time he is in a weakened state. If I open the bolthole from this side, then I can lead us back out the same point, but I cannot get past the demon gatekeepers while Hanhau is resting. Not alone.”
Storm ran through all she’d said and still had a sick feeling this was a bad idea. What was he missing? “What if I want a day to think on this?”
“Then do not blame me for what happens. I have no control over Hanhau or his whims. If I return empty-handed, he may decide to kill me. Then you will lose all chance of regaining any souls or protecting Evalle. He will send the demons for her. If she is as deadly as her reputation, then she may be fine, but even so you will never see your soul.”
Why didn’t I kill this bitch back when I figured out how to escape her years ago?
Because he was determined to prove to himself that even though he’d been bred for demonhood that blood would not govern who he was.
The first step in proving that to himself had been walking away from killing Nadina in cold blood. But once he’d spent enough time training on his own while researching the majik she used, and once he convinced himself he would never succumb to the darkness in his blood, Storm had gone after her to regain two souls. That search had led him here to Atlanta, to VIPER, and to Evalle.
And now that plan had just flown out the window on flapping wings.
Nadina made a grinding noise in her throat. “If you kill me, Hanhau holds your souls forever. If Hanhau kills me, you will have to free the souls from an entity far more powerful than I am.”
Thanks, but he’d figured that one out on his own. Deal with her or battle the ruler of an underworld demon army. Allowing Nadina to live had been a huge miscalculation on Storm’s part. Who knew he’d come to regret an honorable decision?
He should have killed her first, then set his moral barometer. “How many demons does Hanhau currently rule?”
“Over a thousand.”
“That’s not a big enough army?” What did Hanhau have in mind?
“He desires one five times as large.”
“What’s his target?”
She thought for a moment and said, “I told you, he does not tell me his plans, but I heard him yelling once about someone called Sen who slums with mortals. Do you know who that is?”
Unfortunately, yes.
Sen was liaison between VIPER agents in the Atlanta headquarters and their ruling body of deities known as the Tribunal. It was rumored that a majority of deities were aligned with the coalition, meaning VIPER controlled the greatest supernatural power base presently tasked with watching over the mortal world.
Sen had been a bastard to Evalle the entire time Storm had been with VIPER, so he’d hand Sen over without a moment of guilt, but Storm couldn’t allow Hanhau anywhere near Evalle. Was Hanhau after only Sen? Or was he after VIPER headquarters in Atlanta? If Evalle survived going back to the Medb, which Storm believed she would without a doubt, then she would stand with her Beladors to protect VIPER against anything.
Even a legion of demons.
Nadina arched and yelled out, “I’m almost done!”
“Who are you talking to?”
She panted out several breaths and had her hand on her lower back. “Hanhau. He is tired of waiting. Before you walked into the building, I called out to Hanhau and told him you were coming. He is out of patience and I am out of time. You must go now or not at all.”
This was screwed nine ways, but bringing Hanhau into the mix had just upped the game. Storm said, “Give me your blood oath now.”
“We don’t have time.”
“Then I’m not going.” He’d put himself between Evalle and every demon Hanhau turned loose if that was what it took to protect her.
Nadina grumbled, “You must be quick or he will pull me away before it is done.” She produced a knife and said, “Find something to burn.”
Storm glanced around, found a drum with garbage and pulled out a long wood shaving. He stepped back over to Nadina. “I assume you can light this with your powers.”
He could, too, but he wasn’t showing her any of his cards.
“Of course.” She sliced her palm and allowed her blood to drip onto the wood.
Storm sliced his palm, dripping blood to comingle with hers and started the oath. “I, Storm of the Ashaninka, agree to aid you in escaping Mitnal, but only if you uphold your agreement to return my soul, my father’s soul and swear to never harm or even speak to Evalle. You also agree to never come near me again or touch anything that is mine.”
“Anything? How am I supposed to know if something belongs to you, Storm?”
“By staying a million miles away from me and mine. Give your oath word for word the way I stated mine.”
Nadina spoke through lips pulled tight in anger. “I, Nadina, witch doctor of the Ashaninka who worship Koriošpíri, daughter of the powerful Spiritwalker Sinaa, agree to return Storm of Ashaninka’s soul and his father’s soul upon the moment that I leave Mitnal with Storm and have control of those souls. Once we escape together, I also swear to never harm or even speak to Evalle, plus I agree to never go near Storm again or touch anything that is his.”
He hesitated, hoping he hadn’t missed something. Storm released the wood shaving that remained suspended between them. “Burn it.”
The wood burst into flames, Nadina’s deadly black majik burning a licorice smell through the air. The only black magic more deadly than hers was Noirre. He hoped his nostrils weren’t permanently coated from her majik miasma.
His heart pounded a fast staccato. He was going to enter the demon realm. But with a little luck, this would end his journey to release his father’s soul so that his father could cross over to his final resting place in the afterlife. And it would allow Storm to feel whole again.
; To know that he would be the man who deserved Evalle.
And above all, this would eliminate a threat that would otherwise haunt his and Evalle’s future.
Nadina arched again, feet off the floor. She cried out, “Storm is ready. Speak to him, my master.”
Her feet hit the floor and she heaved one breath after another, holding her arms around herself. Even Storm was convinced that she’d suffered in that moment.
A smooth voice that deserved to be on the radio asked, “You are the demon Storm?”
Storm shot a warning look at Nadina who gave him a just-play-along look. He answered, “I’m Storm.”
“You wish to enter Mitnal?”
Not really, but Storm replied, “Yes.” He gritted his teeth against the sharp jab of pain from lying.
“Why?”
Before Storm could send another death glare her way, Nadina wound her hands in the motion of keep talking. Staying as close to the truth as he could, Storm said, “I understand you want someone to train your demons.”
“And you wish to do that?”
“No,” Storm told him in all sincerity, because every minute in Mitnal put him at risk of losing what grip he had on humanity. He hoped he really could last one day there.
Power lashed through the air from one side of the brick building to the other, striking steel I-beams and leaving burn holes in its wake.
Nadina covered her face with her hands and trembled, looking like someone expecting to die.
Storm continued. “I don’t want to do it, but I will since I understand you’re threatening Evalle. I figure we can either do battle or work something out.”
“Wise decision as you would lose a battle.”
Not necessarily, but even Storm had to admit that until he had a chance to size up Hanhau he had no idea exactly what he was going up against. “How long do you expect me to stay?”
Every word had Nadina’s shoulders hunching against possible retaliation.
Hanhau said, “You may leave Mitnal when I release my army. Very soon.”
“What’s very soon in your world?”
“Time has no relevance to a demon.”
A vague answer when Storm needed specifics. He pressed on. “And you’d trust me to lead that army?”
“I trust no one, but I do know that once you leave here by my order that you will follow my orders without question.”
The confidence in Hanhau’s voice gave Storm a moment of hesitation. But he could gut out anything the demon ruler hit him with for one day after having survived what Nadina put Storm through as a young man. He’d walked away from that with his humanity in spite of having no soul.
He could make it through this.
Hanhau’s voice didn’t rise in sound but it filled out with power. “Decide, Storm of the Ashaninka.”
That decision had been made the minute Evalle was put at risk. “I request entrance into Mitnal.”
“I grant that request,” Hanhau answered. “Open the bolthole on your side, Nadina.”
When she dropped her hands from her face, her skin had blanched. She lifted her arms, chanting as she moved her hands apart, palms facing. Light exploded between her palms and grew into an arch. In the next moment, the glowing arch moved from her palms to the concrete floor.
She chanted and continued lowering her hands to her sides, then quieted long enough to say, “Follow me.”
When she walked through the arch, Storm followed her through the bolthole into Mitnal.
Cold rushed across his skin, peppering sharp stings that felt like ice picks striking him. He’d expected as much upon entering the underworld of the cold, but hadn’t expected his body to go icy on the outside and hot as a stoked blaze on the inside. Sweat dripping from his chin hit his chest and froze. Within two steps, he entered a hall of gleaming black stone that flickered with light from hundreds of candles.
A thousand pairs of red eyes turned to the new arrivals.
Demons lounged on surfaces cut into the walls of the massive chamber. Bodies were in all shapes from bulls to serpents to others that were mere skeletons with skin. The smell of despair and hate wound through the air, clinging to Storm’s skin. The energy of the demons crawled over him, seeping into him to test his blood.
He allowed his own energy to pulse through his body and shoved it out hard to back off any inquiries. Several demons howled. Don’t like getting your fingers slapped with an invisible ruler, huh?
He kept following Nadina through the hordes of demons until she stopped and bowed low. That was something Storm had never expected to see.
She hissed at him. “Bow.”
“No. Not part of the deal.”
Bright orange-red light flared in front of them, illuminating a throne of skulls. Not carved to look like skulls, but empty-eyed bone ghosts staring out at nothing.
Perched on that was a being with arms and legs that gave the impression of human and male.
Storm had heard of Hanhau’s owl-shaped head, but this hideous manifestation insulted the beauty of owls. The demon ruler had skin that looked like it was made of bone. It was whiter than snow and smooth as polished alabaster, all except his face, where black, orange and red jagged lines radiated from his eyes to his ears and chin. Spikes of yellow and blood-red hair tufted between two pointy ears. Thick wads of hair fell to his shoulders, past his arms and to his waist in different lengths, braided thick as two of Storm’s fingers. One horn shot straight up from his forehead. His eyes were nothing but flickering flames. A necklace of bones rough-cut into circles swung from his neck.
Not just circles. Those were eye sockets.
When Hanhau opened his mouth to speak, fire raged at the back of his throat. “You have asked to enter my domain, Storm of the Ashaninka, and I have granted it. To remain here, you must state your intentions for coming to Mitnal.”
“That’s not what–” Nadina started to argue and her lips disappeared from her face. She turned wild eyes on Storm.
Storm shook his head at her, careful to sound more demon than human in front of Hanhau when he told Nadina, “Sympathy is the last thing to expect after striking a deal with someone more evil than you are.”
Cold hatred shoved the wildness from her eyes.
Storm ignored her to concentrate on how best to answer Hanhau. “I thought we discussed that before I came through the bolthole.”
“That was to allow you to enter. To remain, you must state your intentions. If you came here with ulterior motives, you will regret it.”
Nadina’s eyes rounded large, begging him to allow her to speak.
Standing with arms crossed and legs apart, Storm said, “I came here to train your demons.”
That lie caused no physical pain, but Storm ignored the oddity for now and focused on the threat he faced.
Hanhau sat forward. His horns erupted into flames.
What was wrong? Storm had given the demon ruler what he wanted, according to Nadina.
Hanhau’s lips twisted into a smile, then his mouth burst open with belly-deep laughter. His demons howled and chortled with him. Hanhau clapped his hands, “I am much pleased, Nadina.”
Storm swung his head to Nadina, whose lips had returned and were now smirking at him.
No, this couldn’t be happening.
He fought to bring words up from his throat.
She had no trouble speaking. “I told you I would have you as my demon, but I’m willing to share you with my master, Hanhau. You and I will not be leaving together so that oath is of no use, but I found it entertaining.” She laughed, a brittle, evil sound that died just before she tossed his own words back at him. “Sympathy is the last thing to expect after striking a deal with someone more evil than you are.”
His world was crashing in on itself, but Storm couldn’t hear it above the screaming inside his head.
Chapter 3
Standing here was going to kill her.
Or someone else if this didn’t move along soon.
Evalle s
hifted her feet, tired of standing in place waiting, waiting, waiting.
Enough already.
She had to find Storm for any hope of tracking down Brina. The longer the Belador warrior queen was missing from Treoir Castle, the longer all the Beladors back in Atlanta, and the rest of the mortal world, were at risk of annihilation.
Treoir Castle stood, as powerful looking as it had been the first time Evalle visited this island hidden in a mist above the Irish Sea. The structure might still be strong but without a Treoir descendant physically inside the beautiful building, Belador warriors had no powers. As it was, only an empty-eyed, holographic effigy of Brina, the last living Treoir, remained. She’d been attacked with black majik dust.
Not just any run-of-the-mill black majik, but Noirre.
Hundreds of warriors standing around Evalle on the lawn leading up to the castle shifted their feet, anxiously waiting for their goddess Macha to speak.
Sooner than later would be nice, but this deity moved at her own pace.
Evalle had already mouthed off once and survived that. Twice in one lifetime would be pushing her paper-thin luck.
Not that she had any issue with spending the last six hours here to help deal with their dead. Helping to prepare each body to be sent back to families for proper burial had broken her heart. But those fallen had known the jeopardy of accepting the duties and risks that came with being a Belador warrior. Beladors were a race of beings living in the mortal world, but who were far more than regular mortal humans. They were born under the PRIN star and had inherited powers passed down through the blood from ancestors two thousand years ago.
Those ancestors had been bloodthirsty killers who would have enjoyed the carnage from the battle fought mere hours ago here on Treoir against the Medb coven of warlocks and witches, but in today’s world things were different. Modern day Beladors upheld a vow to act with honor or face possible death, with their entire families subject to the same punishment.
Macha meant it when she swore that her Beladors would never take a life dishonorably again.