by C. M. Owens
Jude’s brow furrows like he’s agitated, and I kiss Gage’s chest while patting it. I’m not sure when I ended up in this soft, satin gown. But it’s purple, and purple is clearly my new color.
“This is new,” Kai says as his lips purse, not referring to my purple gown as he looks between Gage and me. “I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.”
“Can we discuss the thing I do or don’t have a chance at killing?” I ask in deflection before they all get super suspicious and repeat old patterns.
Gage stiffens against me, and everyone clears their throats as they look away.
“We’ll have to fight with you to keep you from hitting a desperate point of weaponized detonation, according to everything we could find. Otherwise, you won’t even have a chance at being strong enough,” Jude says without looking at me.
“I’m not selfless enough to detonate if all of you are there to die. In other words, I’ll have nothing to gain if I’m not saving your lives,” I explain to myself, since it’s shitty how they want to.
Gage kisses the top of my head, and Kai slides over to put his head against my hip, stretching out and getting comfortable on us since I can’t be pulled away.
Ezekiel stays unusually quiet, still frowning down at the ground.
“Any idea what this thing even looks like?” I ask when no one bothers to say more. “We’ve seen a lot of purgatory and haven’t stumbled across it yet.”
“It’s in a different section inaccessible by anyone not at least near royal level,” Gage says on a harsh exhale.
“We have no idea what it looks like, but we were told there was some pieces of footage from the last battle that didn’t end well for the chosen champion,” Jude goes on.
My eyes drift back to Ezekiel, since he’s not acting right. Gage darts a worried look toward him as well.
“We haven’t seen it yet,” Kai adds, dragging my hand down to his lips to kiss it. “Let me be the favorite for a little while. He’s getting way too much attention and it’s annoying me.”
I smile to myself.
“I bet it looks like a unicorn,” I state very seriously as I sit up.
They all blink at me. “Yeah. I’m sure that’s exactly what it looks like,” Jude states flatly.
I slip over Gage and walk over to Ezekiel before I drop to his lap.
He startles and puts an arm around me like he’s snapping out of a trance before he gives me his attention through strain.
“If this is about another woman, I should warn you that I’m feeling a little bit crazy today,” I warn him.
He kisses me before I can stop him, and I let him since he looks so pitiful right now. What the hell was in the Black Heart?
I kiss him back simply because…I’m a sucker for all four of the assholes.
Breaking the kiss, he drops his head to my shoulder, exhaling like he’s somewhat relieved, for whatever reason. No one says anything as I play with his hair and try to silently soothe whatever problems are going on inside him right now.
“But seriously, a unicorn makes perfect sense. Who would expect this horrifying power of destruction we’re expected to face to look anything less than like a unicorn?” I go on.
Ezekiel snorts against my shoulder, and Jude groans.
“She’s doing the thing where she’s ridiculous,” Jude gripes as he covers his eyes with his arm and yawns.
“We’re not saying we’re agreeing to fight this or allow you to fight this yet,” Kai continues, giving me a pointed look.
“I’m the one with a crown,” I remind him.
“No…you’re the one with a lower back tattoo,” Ezekiel drawls.
“And to think I was pitying you for being pathetic over here,” I grumble, struggling to get up.
I feel the bastard’s smile against my neck as he keeps me trapped to him.
“Why does it have to be a unicorn?” Gage asks like he’s reluctant to do so…but just can’t help himself because he’s a bit of a masochist.
I quit struggling and give him all my attention, even as Ezekiel keeps me strapped to his lap.
“Because it’d be the perfect balance. Who expects something that shits rainbows to be the end of the world? Unicorns only make sense if they’re evil…”
I wait a minute to let that sink in before giving them a conspiratorial nod.
“Her nose isn’t bleeding, but I still think she’s serious,” Kai says like he’s genuinely horrified.
“I am serious. How do you not see the genius in the balance?” I argue just before someone knocks at the door again.
We all look over as Lamar steps inside, holding a small compass that could fit in the palm of a child’s hand.
He gives me a miffed look before stating, “Your errand boy has returned to bring what your horsemen demanded,” he says before dumping the compass into Jude’s hand and walking away.
“What’s that?” I ask as Jude starts twisting dials on the compass thingy that’s not really a compass thingy.
“This is what sort of recordings could be taken of the battle all those centuries ago. They said it was shit, so don’t get your hopes up,” he tells me distractedly.
With a very tired tone, I answer, “There’s really not a whole lot about any of this that helps me get my hopes up, so I think that’s just redundant to request at this point.”
Ezekiel lets me stand when something starts flashing on the wall, and Gage goes to blow out the candles as the distorted, mostly static-coated reel plays out. The compass is acting like a projector of sorts as the roar of sound gets louder.
It takes me a second to realize the roar of sound is an actual, horrifying, steady roar of…something I really, truly, and honestly don’t want to fight.
Oh, I am so not fearless. Just the sound it makes is terrifying me.
It’s like howler monkeys crawled up a gorilla’s ass and had a dinosaur baby that fucked a radioactive Godzilla…and had an even worse baby. If any of that makes sense.
Chills spread all over me, and my heartbeat ratchets up. I’m a big, pathetic phony, because I am so not fearless. I’m not fearless at all.
If I had a mommy, I’d run and hide behind her skirt right now.
My eyes narrow on the shadow that turns into a billowing, black fog and drives down on something just as white flashes and the screen scrambles again.
A scream tears through the room, and I leap so high up in the air that I embarrass myself.
Red eyes glow in the fog for only the briefest of seconds, and I suck in a breath when I realize it’s not a fog at all. It’s the evil I’m supposed to fight.
Another scream tears through before the screen disappears and scrambles, turning into white noise on a continuous loop.
We all just stare at the static for a quiet, palpable moment.
“What the hell was that?” I demand very seriously.
Without hesitation, Jude steps in behind me and lowers his head next to mine, staring with me at the static.
“Not a fucking unicorn,” he deadpans.
“Terrible time to adopt a sense of humor,” I say with a shaky voice. On the next breath, I add, “Someone call the angel who killed me. If we’re going to do this, he’s going to have to help.”
“Why the hell would you want his help?” Gage snaps.
I shrug a shoulder. “He kicked my ass and he trained that champion. You do the math, Einstein.”
No one argues for a second.
“If you can’t do this easily, we don’t do this at all,” Jude says without moving from behind me.
“Careful, Death. You almost sound like you care,” I drawl as my head tries to work out any possible way to sound badass right now instead of a scared little real girl.
I didn’t have these sorts of problems when Ghost was my dream world.
“We’re starting to sound like the punchline to a bad joke,” I point out as I groan and turn around. “The Four Horsemen and The Apocalypse walk into Purgatory to save the world beca
use they’re selfish brats who want to live long and prosper.”
Jude picks up his bo staff and gives it a lazy twirl before casting me a dry look. “You’re a lot of fucking work for a girlfriend,” he says like he’s put out.
“Agreed. You’re still stuck with me, though,” I tell him as I move to the door.
They all filter out before me, talking like they’re unafraid of what comes next. I turn around and lean against the wall as my nose starts steadily dripping black and my hands shake.
There’s no way they can go in there with me if I can’t figure out how to kill it without detonating. And there’s no way I’m leaving that thing alive to kill them.
My chin wobbles for a second as I suck up the tears and clear my throat, and I wipe away the blood from my nose before I follow them out.
I guess it’s time to finally learn to be a real badass.
I just wish I remembered how I used to do it.
End of Book 3
BONUS SCENE
KAI
There’s a single moment in a man’s life when he realizes just how insanely tethered to a particularly maddening woman he is. That moment came for me when I thought she’d died the first time.
I thought that was bad enough.
But as that big fucking monster shoots out of the ground, jaws wide as it swallows her whole, I freeze in sheer terror for the first time in my remembered existence.
Jude slams into the invisible barrier as the monster shoots out of the ground completely.
It isn’t until I hear a roar of pain and see the side of the worm-like beast’s side being pounded open by a shock of power that I feel even from here, that I find the ability to move again.
Paca flings herself out, and a cold wash of relief slithers through my body as my right hand trembles just barely. I swallow the lump in my throat as quietly as I can, because I really don’t want anyone knowing just how hardcore I fucking panicked.
I scrub a hand over my face, as Ezekiel doubles over and exhales harshly.
We all straighten as Paca clears the goop away from her face enough to look over at us immediately.
She pairs one of her is-this-really-happening-to-me-right-now looks with a careless shrug that understates the torture this woman puts us through without even fucking realizing the power she has over us.
Jude’s fists are so tight that I can tell it’s taking all he has not to explode. You’d think he’s the embodiment of wrath instead of her. Gage is staring like he’s ready to tie her to the fucking bed and punish her for being so vulnerable without us.
That’s not such a bad idea.
“Clearly, someone forgot to tell it I’m The Apocalypse,” she says like this is just a casual evening and she doesn’t realize the severity of the entire situation. “I’ve been gone a while, as you’re aware.”
“I think she deliberately tries to drive us insane,” Gage grinds out quietly.
“No, she’s taking this as seriously as she knows how to,” Ezekiel says in a tone barely above a whisper. “In case you haven’t noticed, none of the heirs take things very seriously at all.”
“They all play their fucking games,” Jude bites out. “Her included, even though she doesn’t realize it half the time.”
Before I can make out the bickering going between Rafael and Lucifer again, a light flashes so brightly that it’s blinding. A sick knot tugs at my stomach when I realize we’re being forcibly removed.
We all four stagger forward in an empty, pure white room. Jude spins, twirling his scythe as he turns and looks around. Ezekiel lifts his staff and taps on one of the walls.
“What the actual fucking hell is going on right now?” I snap as I kick at the wall closest to me.
There aren’t any doors or windows. There isn’t any furniture. It’s just an empty, white room that is designed to withstand the Four Horsemen and their tantrums.
“Paca is there without us now,” Gage says so quietly that I almost don’t hear it.
I’m not really sure what happens next. I’ve kicked the wall a hundred times in less than a minute and it hasn’t budged. Yet he punches it one hard time, and a hole slices through it.
Ezekiel goes over to it to slash at the hole, and the two of them work on tunneling a way out.
Jude leaps through the hole the second it’s big enough, and I twirl my triton as I follow behind Ezekiel and Gage, trying to keep my calm. But the blood in my veins is boiling, and all I can think about is getting us back to Paca.
“They wouldn’t kill her,” I say as if I’m talking myself into believing that, as we stealthily make our way down the seemingly endless white corridor.
Before anyone can have an opinion, the heavy patter of footsteps come racing toward us at charging speeds.
“Please return to your holding room,” a voice says from around us as the footsteps start approaching from the other side as well.
Jude smirks.
Fucking hell. This is going to get messy.
I twirl my triton just as Gage’s dark grin emerges, and Ezekiel spins to turn around just as I do.
“Sorry, but our somewhat insane girlfriend gets herself into a lot of fucking trouble when we’re not around,” I tell the unfortunate souls who become visible as they continue to approach, spears aimed directly at us.
They look like old-school friars in their brown, hooded robes and twine belts.
It’s the only warning they get, because Jude lunges at the same time Gage does, both of them taking opposite sides in their attacks.
I jump in behind Jude, as Ezekiel goes to back up Gage.
Twirling my triton, I send out a shock of power that unleashes some satisfying, morbid screams. However…it’s nothing compared to whatever in the hell Jude unleashes.
I stumble back away from the pulsing power as his eyes go solid black, his jaw ticking as a dark, twisted smile forms on his lips. Ah, shit. What’s wrong with him?
The friars on the front row have wide eyes seconds before they’re obliterated, and Jude swings his scythe again, and again, and again, downing countless others all on his own.
The walls around us begin to tremble, as someone barks more orders for us to go back to containment.
I glance back over my shoulder to see Gage leveling the lines as fiercely as Jude, while Ezekiel plows through the strays. There aren’t any strays for me.
All mine have been slain.
The walls around us shake more violently this time, pitching me to the side so hard a grunt is slammed out of me. That pisses me right the hell off.
“Someone leave something for me to fucking kill!” I snap.
A flash of light strikes through the hall, once again forcibly removing us, and we stumble into hell’s motherfucking bowels. At least I think that’s where we’re at.
Between the bubbling hellfire lava and putrid stench of death in the unfamiliar grounds, it’s a logical deduction.
“I guess we were fucking up the balance, which means we’re about to have hell company to reset it,” Jude grinds out seconds before bodies all suddenly begin leaping over the stream of hellfire lava, their camouflage dropping as the cracked, stone-like creatures with long, pointed tails charge us.
“That’s it. I’m out,” I state as I turn and walk away from this shit. “You guys can handle this one on your own.”
I’m not messing with anything in the damn bowels. Creatures that hell finds to be its shit? Fuck that racket.
“This is really starting to piss me off,” Gage bites out.
I glance back as he twirls the sword in his hand. He spins suddenly, and we’re all driven backwards by the pulse of power that explodes from him.
Bodies wither and screams abruptly collapse, when they all burst into pebbles that crash to the ground and begin to rattle.
“We can’t get to her if we can’t siphon,” I remind them as I start walking again. “The best thing we can do is find a way to lie low until—”
We’re ripped out of hell’s bo
wels in the next instant, and we’re spit back out into a gray plume of dust and debris, as my spine stiffens.
Lucifer’s back is to us as he and everyone else in attendance stare ahead. I cut my gaze to the dust storm just as the air swirls and clears, and it’s all I can do to remain upright when I see Paca.
Bile rises to my throat when I take in the deep bruises and swollen wounds. One of her eyes has been sealed shut with the swelling, and she’s covered in singed fabric that has burned against her own black, acidic blood.
Her hands go to her mouth as tears immediately start leaking down her face, and I see her wobble on her feet as her eyes fix to Ezekiel.
“Forgive me,” Lucifer says.
Paca uses a blood-smeared hand to grab Ezekiel by the back of the neck and draw him to her. A pang of envy hits me when she nuzzles him like she’s desperate for his attention.
I bristle, wondering why in the hell I wish she was leaning on me while standing so brokenly before us.
I hear Jude swallowing hard from behind me, and I glance back to see the muscle jumping along his jaw as he cuts a lethal gaze to Rafael. Gage is glaring at the angel with the same intensity, grip tightening on his sword.
I stop myself over and over from taking Paca away from Ezekiel so I can inspect her for myself.
“An illusion?” she asks quietly, her voice sounding clogged and fractured.
I battle myself harder to stay in place. I can’t get jealous. Yet…it doesn’t really feel like envy either, if I’m being honest. I can’t imagine any other reason why I’d like to rip her away from here and keep her to myself for a few hours while she licks her damn pitiful fucking wounds.
This is killing me, and I don’t even fully understand why.
“They now know for sure,” Lucifer tells her. “You’ll heal faster in hell than in Purgatory. You’ll heal faster in Purgatory than topside. We’ll talk when your emotions don’t leave you unreasonable.”
I don’t even care that he blinks out of sight. All I want to do is drag Paca to hell so she can start healing as soon as possible.
Jude barely stops himself from charging the angel, when Rafael and Paca exchange a look.