by Jasmine Walt
I pushed my plate away. “Okay. Loki, Garuda, and I will go in search of Kosmos in the Red Zone. He’s the only one who may know how to locate the Daughter of Chaos.”
“Because he’s her sibling?” Varuna said.
“That’s right. Loki knows the spell to put her back into slumber, but it’s no good to us if we can’t find her.”
“We need to work fast,” Loki said. “Find her before she’s regained her strength. The slumber will have weakened her, but it won’t be long before she’ll be too powerful for the spell to work. The first time the Guard cast it, the void had just been reborn using Elara’s body.”
“You better hurry,” Varuna said. “As soon as you step out of this clearing, time will resume.”
“What about the rest of us?” Drake asked.
“You can stay here until it’s time to fight.”
“No,” Ajitah said. “I need to go back for my boys.”
“And Carmella,” Aaron said.
I looked to Indra. “They’re at the mansion.”
Indra’s eyes flared and his body tensed. “I’m afraid, in that case, it may already be too late.”
“What?”
“The mansion is built atop the gates of the underworld, Malina. The seal has cracked and the gates are opening.”
Oh, fucking hell…of course it was!
“When the Daughter of Chaos forced the seal loose, the energy maintaining the mansion would have been disrupted. The symbols marking the entrance to the underworld would have activated.”
“Symbols? As in the weird markings in the foyer?”
But Ajitah was already on his feet. “I knew there was something strange about those symbols. Give me the keys to the van,” he said to Drake.
Drake stood up. “I’ll do one better. I’ll drive you.”
“I’m coming, too,” Aaron said.
Everything in me screamed to volunteer to go with them, but it was the classic “save your friends or save the world” conundrum. I locked eyes with Ajitah. “I have to go after the entity.”
He nodded curtly. “I know.”
I watched them leave and then sagged. “Let’s get this over with.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Although a fat lot of good I’m gonna be against the void without the seal’s power.”
“Tell her, Indra,” Varuna said softly.
Indra looked torn.
“Tell me what?”
“Just spill it,” Garuda said.
Indra turned to me. “The seal may have cracked, but the power isn’t gone. It found another host, one in tune with it. One designed to channel it.”
“It’s in you, Malina,” Varuna said.
Indra sighed. “I’m sorry, Malina.”
I’d felt the pain, the tearing agony as the connection was broken…or had that just been the pain of receiving the full blast of power? Wait. In the chaos of the moment at the prison, it hadn’t even occurred to me, but if the seal’s power was gone, then I’d be more naga than hellhound, and my fear of Garuda would be back. It wasn’t. Which meant Indra was right. But why did he look so apologetic?
“Okay. Isn’t it a good thing we still have access to the power?”
Varuna and Indra exchanged glances.
“For goodness’ sake, just spit it out.”
Indra sighed heavily. “The hellhound was created to channel the divine power of the seal, never to house it completely. It is attracted to you because of your DNA, the specific cocktail the gods cooked up. But it was never meant to live inside you permanently. Your body wasn’t created for that.”
“So what are you saying?” Even though I was beginning to get the picture, I needed him to say it.
“Your body will deteriorate. You will die.”
“Then get it out of her,” Garuda said. “Do it now.”
“We could. We could all siphon a little, but the seal’s power is more useful to us intact.”
“Fuck that,” Garuda said. “You take it out of her now.”
If I kept the power, it would kill me, and there was no real time frame for how long I had left. But if I let them siphon it, I was potentially killing billions of people—this power inside me could tip the balance in our favor.
There was only one thing to do. “Indra is right. If we’re going to fight the entity, I need to hold on to this power for a little while longer. Once this is over, then they can relieve me of it.”
Garuda growled in exasperation. “If you survive that long… Malina…please. We can do this without the seal’s power.”
“No. We can’t. We’re undermanned and overwhelmed as it is. Getting rid of it now would be like handing over a vital weapon. I promise, if I start to feel worse, I’ll tell you.”
“Thank you,” Indra said.
Garuda huffed but didn’t say anything. But there was something I needed to tell Indra without Garuda listening.
I squeezed Garuda’s hand. “Just give me a sec.” Turning back to Indra, I jerked my head and began walking toward the edge of the clearing.
After a moment, he followed.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I think something may have happened to Yama’s wives.”
“What? How would you know anything about his wives?”
“Okay, first, Eamon told me who Ajitah really is. And second, Yama’s wives spoke to me. They said they were hiding in the seal.”
Indra frowned. “Why didn’t you report this to me? Did Eamon know?”
I held up my hand. “I didn’t remember the first couple of times, and then when I did, Dad was…he was dying. So I don’t know what’s happened to them now the seal is broken.”
He blew out a breath. “Theoretically, they would be released, either into this world or the underworld.”
“So Yama’s wives—Ajitah’s wives—could be out there right now? What if they see him?”
He ran a hand over his face. “I’ll worry about Yama’s wives. Even if they see him, they will only see the shell we placed him in. His true essence is hidden. My brothers and sisters are gathering their strength; we will fight, and we will push back the horde. But the shaitan are a temporary threat. The Daughter of Chaos is our primary problem. If she isn’t stopped, nothing will matter. It will all be gone. I’m sorry that the duty of finding her falls to you.”
“No. The gates are open because I was foolish enough to walk into her trap.”
Indra snorted. “You weren’t foolish. She was merely a step ahead. But I believe we can gain the upper hand. Find her and put her back under. The power inside you is epic, but it won’t be contained for long. Use it while you can. If you begin to feel ill, weakened, dizzy, anything, call me.”
The weakness from earlier had gone. The amrit in the food must have given my body the boost it needed to carry the power for a little longer. No point in mentioning that now, though.
“Okay, say I do my part, but what if the gods can’t force back the shaitan?”
“Then we have a plan B.”
“And do I get to know what that is?”
“When the time comes, I will let you know. Right now, a helicopter is parked on the roof waiting to drop you into the Red Zone.”
“My mother has her nagamuni back. How much time do you think she has before she’s forced back to Nagalok?”
“As long as she remains in the clearing, she will be fine. Time and the multi-verse have no place here.”
I nodded and went to find my mother. She was deep in conversation with Vinnay, their bodies angled toward each other.
“Mother?”
She looked up, her face breaking into a smile. “Vinnay told me that you freed him from the form he was trapped in.”
“Yeah, he made a pretty good dog, though. I kinda miss my Toto.”
Vinnay shuddered, and my mother laughed—a tinkling sound that brought back memories of a happier, sunnier time.
“Look. I have to go. I have a lead on how to locate the Daughter of Chaos.”
My mother
’s expression sobered. Her eyes flashed dangerously. “I’m coming with you.”
“No. You have to stay here.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but I held up a hand. “If you come with me, you’ll be in the multi-verse’s power, and with your nagamuni restored, you risk being pulled back to Nagalok.”
She wrung her hands. “I can’t let you do this alone. You don’t know how powerful she is. I can’t find the words to explain how empty she is. How devoid of any compassion, any feeling at all. She will kill you simply because she can.”
“I can take care of myself. Trust me. But I need you to stay here. I’ve only just got you back. I can’t bear to lose you again so soon. When this is done…when it’s over, then we’ll catch up.”
She pulled me into a hug. “Be safe, baby, and come back to me. I need more time.”
Please, let us have more time…
20
Compared to the rest of the city, the Red Zone was a peace zone. I imagine the Kubera weren’t targeting it because it was already considered a lost cause. They’d probably done their recruiting when they’d been holed up here making vampire-witches.
I directed the chopper pilot to the newsagents where I’d met Kosmos, and he hovered above it while we used a rope ladder to climb onto the store roof—my action-movie dream come true. I landed first and shimmied down the side of the building, stepping into the store to find Kosmos sitting on the counter arranging four cups on a tea tray. A steaming teapot, a carton of milk, and a bowl of sugar cubes were already in place.
He looked up from his task. “About time. I was wondering how much longer it was going to take you to get here.” He raised his eyes to the roof where the sound of the copter blade was still audible. “It’s pretty dead around here at the moment. You could have walked in.”
“You knew we were coming back?”
He shrugged. “I had an inkling. Come sit and have a cup of tea. It’s Darjeeling.”
Garuda and Loki entered the store, and Kosmos sat up straighter, drawing himself up to his full, miniscule height.
His attention went straight to Loki. “Hello, Valorian.”
Loki cocked his head, his brow furrowing. “Kosmos…is that really you?”
Kosmos looked down at himself, his mouth twisting in a wry smile. “Last I checked.”
Loki took a step back. “What happened to you?”
Kosmos snorted. “You always were a little too direct. This is all I managed to salvage. I see you fared better.”
“I don’t understand. How did you escape?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
Loki licked his lips. “I’m not sure. After I completed casting the spell to put the entity to sleep, I lost consciousness. I awoke here, in this reality.”
Kosmos’s eyes narrowed. “The luxury of oblivion was not offered to me. My journey here came with bone-rending, muscle-twisting agony. What you see before you is all that was left of me. But I maintained some of my divine power. Over the years, I have nurtured it, allowing it to grow and blossom.”
Enough with the reunion; we needed to get to business. “You know why we’re here, right?”
He nodded. “You want to find my sister and put her back to sleep.” He snorted. “Sorry, not my sister. Not any longer.”
“Yes. Can you help us?”
“No.”
Loki pushed passed me. “What do you mean, no?”
Kosmos sipped his tea. “It is too late for the spell, old friend. There is nothing of Elara left for me to track. When we first cast the spell, an essence of Elara remained. She was still inside, salvageable, but now, after all this time, Elara is gone. There is only the void, and the void will not be lulled to sleep. It wears her face because it has none of its own, but don’t be fooled, there is nothing but emptiness behind those eyes.” He drained his cup. “You may as well stay and have some tea. There is nothing more for you to do but wait. The void will have the multi-verse because the multi-verse belongs to it. Just like my sister and I do, just as you all do. We all came from darkness, and to darkness we shall return.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that before all this—before creation, before the gods—there was only the void. And now it’s here. It wants back everything that it unwittingly spawned. So you see. This is it. The end of time.”
I looked to Loki. “That can’t be it. There has to be something we can do.”
Kosmos threw back his head and laughed. “Yes, ask the man who invited it in, who showed it our location and offered it the crown.” Kosmos pointed an accusatory finger in Loki’s direction. “Foolish male, thinking only with his cock, drew power from the void but ended up giving it a free pass into our multi-verse.”
Okay, so Loki and I had fucked up—him by doing the spell and me by unwittingly tampering with it, but sitting here procrastinating and telling us how doomed we were was a waste of valuable time.
“Is this why you waited for us? To bash us and tell us how hopeless everything was? Seriously? You’re supposed to be a divine entity. You created a world. You were a god. And you have nothing to give us?”
He blinked across at me. “You think I don’t want to help? I wish there was something I could do to stop her. But she is coming for me, for all of us, and I’m done hiding. So join me in some tea while there’s still time.”
Our world was about to be invaded by death and all he could do was drink tea? Hot rage bubbled inside me, spiraling down my arms and into my fingertips. I held up my hands and blasted the tea tray with my hellfire.
Kosmos squealed and toppled off the counter.
“Get up. Get up now!” I strode toward him. “Nothing is invincible. Nothing, you hear me?”
He held his arms above his head to shield himself.
“Malina. Calm down.” Garuda grabbed my arm, but I shook him off.
“If it can be born, it can die, and you need to tell me how to kill the void.”
“You can’t kill the void, you fool. The void is the mother of all. It is the womb from which all creation was spawned.”
“Yeah, and it was nothing without a host, without your sister to give it form. Now it has a form, so it can be killed. So think, dammit. How can we kill it?”
“Power…” Loki leaned down and hauled Kosmos to his feet. “An overload of power.”
“It feeds on power. That would only make it stronger,” Kosmos said. “Did you not see the vortex above the city? She’s opening a doorway and using the chaos in the city to do it. It won’t be long before the void comes pouring in.”
“Right now, we’re not dealing with the void as a whole,” Loki pointed out. “We’re dealing with its channel, which has a form. Even though that form gave the void access to the multi-verse, it also made it vulnerable. Every form comes with its limitations—a capacity that cannot be exceeded.”
“Like a fuse?” Kosmos said.
Garuda said, “We overload it, and it blows.”
Kosmos rubbed the top of his head. “It could work. Elara’s divine form is the void’s connection to us…like a bridge. The form—this Daughter of Chaos, as she has named herself—is the void’s only access to us. If we overwhelm the Daughter of Chaos, we compromise the bridge.” His eyes lit up. “Yes, yes, that could work…” His shoulders slumped. “But that amount of power…it would take a hundred gods channeling their divinity into her to have any effect. Heck, maybe two hundred. I’ve seen your gods; they are mere shadows of themselves. It can’t be done.”
Yes, they were mere shadows. But they were shadows because they’d given everything to create the seal. They’d channeled all their power into creating the hellhound—my bloodline. The power of a hundred gods ran through my veins. Not just to be accessed via a seal but to be wielded directly. I could feel it now, simmering, writhing, and bubbling inside, eroding this body designed to channel but not host. I ignored the quiver in my belly and the shiver racing across my skin. I was fine.
“Malina,
” Garuda said. “The seal has the power of the gods.”
Kosmos shook his head. “Not enough. We’d need double what you have.”
Loki ran a hand through his hair. “If only there was a way to duplicate the power inside you. A spell or—”
“Enough with your spells,” Kosmos said. “Haven’t you learned your lesson?”
Their bickering faded into the background. My mind was whirring with an insane possibility. A freaking long shot of an idea that could end up getting me killed, but…I grabbed hold of Garuda’s hand and pulled him into the nearest aisle.
“I have an idea, but you’re not going to like it.”
“Not if it involves putting your life at risk.”
I winced. “Yeah, it kinda does.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but I put my finger to his lips.
“Hear me out.”
His eyes narrowed, but he nodded.
“There are other seals out there. Other versions of me. So…if I can find one and bring her here with me…”
His eyes lit up in comprehension, and then his mouth hardened. “Jeremiah managed to travel to other realities, but he never came across any alternate versions of this reality. The only way to access your alternates’ realities would be to go back to Nagalok and ask for Vasuki’s help.” He gripped my shoulders. “If that bastard Harish sees you, they’ll figure out that Vasuki duped them.” His fingers tightened painfully. “You’re putting your life and Vasuki’s rule in jeopardy.”
“If we don’t stop the Daughter of Chaos, we’re all dead anyway.” I traced the ring on his pinky—the one my grandfather, the naga king, had given him. “Look, we may not need to go back to Nagalok. This ring belongs to Vasuki. Maybe if we use it to open the gateway under the Thames, he’ll sense it somehow. Maybe he’ll come to us?”
“Too many maybes.”
Yeah, it was a long shot, but… “Maybes are better than no hope.”
“What makes you think an alternate version of you would leave her reality to come help you save yours?”
“Because everything is connected. The void threatens us all, and our reality…it’s the linchpin. I just know it. Laila’s vision, Vasuki’s hints about the other realities and how they’d fallen. I believe if we destroy the void here, then—”