by Amy Sumida
“You do?” I asked with surprise.
“That ifrit published it in his paper: Inside the Beneath.” Odin laughed. “I didn't even need subterfuge to discover that debacle.”
“Jack.” I sighed. “Right; I forgot about our deal.”
“You'll need a strong man watching your back,” Odin said sternly. “Manticores won't let such slaughter go. You killed an entire pride; they'll send mercenaries after you.”
“Shit,” I hissed. “Do you think that's what this might be?”
“The death worm abduction?” Odin lifted his brows. “I don't know; possibly. If that's the case, it's imperative that we settle things with your Rooster Spell soon. Perhaps you could stay the night with me?”
Before I could protest, Gage came striding up.
“You are reprehensible,” he snarled at Odin. “First you try to win Elaria for the power it can bring you, and then you try to seduce her on your first date. What kind of man are you to treat a woman like that?”
“The kind that has pined after one for over two-hundred years,” Odin said simply. “And what kind of man are you to keep interrupting another man's private interludes with a woman you've rejected?”
“I didn't reject her,” Gage growled.
Gage had traded his leather clothes for something more modern, and he looked amazing. The crisp, cotton dress shirt in baby blue went nicely with his golden-brown skin, and the tailored pants he'd paired it with skimmed his muscular thighs in a smooth line that just hinted at the strength hidden beneath. His shirt cuffs were rolled up, and despite the civilized attire, he looked ready to rumble.
“Yes, you did.” Odin stood to face Gage down. “And yet you keep acting as if you have a claim on Elaria. Let me explain something to you, griffin; once you've told a woman you don't want her, you're supposed to leave her be.”
“I overheard some witches talking about you and your intentions toward Elaria,” Gage ground out the words. “You're using her vulnerability to prey on her.”
“I may be using this situation to get my chance with her,” Odin corrected, “but I'm not trying to prey on her. I've known her since she was a little girl and I'm good friends with her father; I would never hurt Elaria.”
“You're trying to seduce your friend's daughter?” Gage asked with horror. “You're fucking sick.”
“I'm sick?” Odin's eyes started to glow. “We're immortals, asshole; we date around. Things like seeing a child become an adult don't deter us from being attracted to them when they're grown.”
“Neither does friendship with the child's father, evidently,” Gage huffed. “Common decency demands that you stand down.”
“Stand down?” Odin chuckled. “This isn't a war, boy. If it was, you'd already be dead.”
“You've obviously never seen a griffin fight.” Gage's eyes went pure green as he started forward.
“Okay, that's enough!” I stood between the two men and held my arms out to separate them. “We're not starting a war tonight.”
“You don't need his strength, Elaria,” Gage said. “Find someone better suited; someone who will truly care for you.”
“I appreciate your concern, Gage,” I said gently, but before I could go on, Odin butted in.
“I care for her more than you ever could!”
“You have no idea how strongly a griffin loves!” Gage roared. “If I mated her, I'd die to protect her. She would be everything to me.”
“If,” Odin said scornfully. “You don't even have a right to say 'if' anymore. You walked away, remember?”
“It doesn't mean that I don't care for my intended mate!”
“She isn't your intended!” Odin snapped. “If she were, you would be here with her instead of yelling at me for it.”
“Destiny gave us to each other,” Gage said. “She's mine!”
“No, kid, she's not,” Odin said calmly. “You threw her away. You gave Destiny the finger. Elaria is not yours; she never will be.”
“I feel her in my blood,” Gage declared. “Her scent is all I smell. Her face haunts my every waking moment and then she rules my dreams. There is nothing more certain to me than the fact that Elaria and I are meant for each other. And no matter what you say, you cannot change that.”
“Nor you, evidently,” Odin observed.
Gage frowned, looking from Odin's judgmental expression to my bewildered one.
“No, I cannot change it,” Gage said softly. “But I am faced with a decision that will hurt me either way. Claiming her might destroy my life, but not claiming her will destroy me.”
Before I could ask what he meant by that dramatic statement, my phone went off. I pulled it out of my skirt pocket and looked at the caller ID; it was my aunt, Aoide.
“Aunty Aoide?” I answered, holding up a hand to the men.
“Ellie, I need your help!” Aoide screeched. “Adelaid isn't answering, and I can't fend them off by myself.”
“Fend off who?”
“Demons! I'm being attacked by a group of gallus, El!” she screamed.
“Get down to the basement and lock yourself in!” I screamed back. “I'll be there in thirty seconds.”
I hung up and fished out my travel stone.
“What's happening?” Odin demanded; the wooing romantic replaced entirely by the witch elder.
“Demons are attacking Aoide,” I said.
“Demons?” Odin whispered in horror. “Elaria—”
I didn't wait for Odin to finish; my family was in danger. I gripped the stone tightly and directed it to take me to Alexandrite. Aunt Aoide lived on an island near the Bahamas, and I needed to travel through the Veil to use my stone, so I had to go into Tír na nÓg first. Just as I started to be pulled away, Gage grabbed my hand.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“What are you doing?” I growled the question at Gage after we reformed inside Declan's bedroom.
“I wasn't about to let you face demons on your own,” he said stoically.
“Shit! I can't take you back now,” I huffed as I looked around. “And Declan's not here. Looks like you're going to meet the family.”
I grabbed Gage's hand and took him with me to Aoide's basement. We appeared right before her, and she lurched back in surprise when she saw Gage with me, her golden-brown wings beating the air to keep her standing.
“Who is this?” She asked.
“Gage,” I said simply. “He's here to help. Gage, this is my Aunt Aoide.”
“Hello.”
“Hello,” she said, bemused now that the shock had worn off.
Then a crash took our attention.
“They're inside,” Aoide whispered.
“Don't worry; if worse comes to worst, I'll take you to Tír na nÓg,” I reassured her.
“This is my home,” she snarled. “I'm not going anywhere. If I wanted to abandon the island, I could have flown away on my own, Elaria.”
“Well said.” Gage nodded approvingly. “So, here's what we're going to do; I will force them out of the house and get them into a more open environment. Aoide, you go outside through the back, then come around to the front to lure out those who I can't force outside. We'll use a combination of stick and carrot. Elaria, you use your spellsinging to herd the demons together.”
Gage started removing his shoes. Before I could ask him what that was all about, Aoide posed a more important question.
“Herd them together and then what?” Aoide asked. “These are gallus; they can't be reasoned with, and they're incredibly hard to kill.”
“Then I'm going to send them back to Hell.” I gave her a smug smile.
Gage's eyes went wide.
“Well, technically, it's Kur, the Sumerian Underworld...” Aoide's voice trailed away when she saw my expression. “But we don't have time for semantics.”
“No; we don't.” I headed for the door. “Fast like bunnies now,” I said over my shoulder. “Aoide to the back of the house, Gage to the front. And Gage, try not to trash my Aunt's furnitur
e; there are a lot of antiques up there.”
“And where are you going?” Gage asked me. He looked a little annoyed that I had stolen his thunder.
That's right; Vivian had said they were the best military tacticians. He had probably thought he'd come along and direct the whole operation.
“I'm going upstairs.” I opened the basement door and crept up the steps. “I need a clear line of sight to direct the magic.”
We hurried out into the house; Aoide toward the back door, Gage toward the front, and I went up the stairs on our right. The sound of snarling immediately filled the house. I used it to cover my pounding footsteps, and then raced to my Aunt's bedroom; she had a balcony off the master that overlooked the meadow in front of her house. As I stepped out on the wooden planks of the balcony, I pulled out my iPod and shoved the earbuds in. I flipped through the songs quickly as Gage tumbled down the front steps, tangled around a gallus demon.
Aoide had turned on all the house lights, and golden shafts spilled from the windows, illuminating the front yard. I could clearly see the two combatants. The thing Gage was wrestling had inky skin and enormous eyes that flashed nearly as bright as Gage's acid green irises. Long claws curved in razor-sharp arches from its fingers, but Gage had a set of lethal-looking talons himself. Gage was half-shifted; snowy feathers flowed down from his temples into a lion's mane that just skimmed his widened shoulders—widened to support a pair of massive, eagle wings. Those wings wrapped forward around the gallus—caging the demon—and a terrible screeching filtered through the feathers. Another demon came striding out of the house to help his comrade, but the rest were still searching for my Aunt.
Gage and the demon rolled further into the meadow as Aoide came rushing around the side of the house brandishing a sword. Aoide shouted to catch the demons' attention, and the demon who had been heading to help his friend with Gage turned about and focused on her instead. The remaining three in the house must have heard Aoide too because they came running out toward her. Gage tossed his opponent away from him, kicking him in the belly with feet that had shifted into lion paws, as his lion's tail twitched behind him aggressively. The demon went barreling into two others, but they quickly scrambled to their feet.
All of this happened as the music began to play in my ears; Dorothy's “Raise Hell.” Declan wasn't there, so I was going to have to send these demons home myself. I didn't know how to open a portal on my own, but I knew how to call Hell to me. I'd brought several types of hell to Tír na nÓg once. I was hoping I could do it here too, and use those pieces of Hell to suck these bastards back to where they belonged. Yeah, it was only a theory, but desperate times and all that.
The thumping drums and grinding, screeching guitars filled my blood with strength and lifted my magic to fill my throat. My shoulders rolled, and my feet started stomping the boards—left then right, in a steady rhythm—as I was pulled immediately into the power of music and magic. My voice rumbled out over the battle, and everyone went still and stared up at me. The lyrics were the kind that grabbed you by the gut and turned you into a puppet; incapable of doing anything but dancing to its tune. And I was the puppet master; I held my hands out to the gallus and pulled their strings. The demons gaped up at me like I was far more than that; I had become their dark goddess. They gathered at the base of the balcony; massive jaws hanging open, toxic saliva dripping down their chins, and burning eyes focused intently on me as they listened.
Oh yeah; I was singing their song. The lyrics spoke directly to their black hearts; urging them to bring all of their malice to the surface and be what they were born to be. I told them they were just what I needed; evil incarnate, calamity and chaos taken form. Together we could do great and disastrous things. Come to me, my little demons, and I will lead you to the promised land—a world full of sweet souls for you to harvest. I screeched and groaned my commandments to them, and it was just what they wanted to hear. Demons are minions at heart; they need a leader to direct their nefarious inclinations. Someone had abandoned them there and given them only one purpose; to kill Aoide. But I was offering them more; an entire battle instead of just an assassination. I offered them an apocalypse. The demons started to growl with anticipation, their claws clicking in time to the beat I pounded out with my feet and fists. The drums of war were calling to them, and they were ready to march.
Gage drew away from the gallus demons in amazement, his body slowly shifting back to what it had been before—though his new clothes were toast, hanging from him in shreds. Aoide stood beside him and smiled, her wings folded back serenely. She cast Gage a smug look and said something that had his eyes widening even further. But Gage didn't remove his gaze from me. He stared fixedly as I opened my arms and sent the magic of my song through the realms to touch Kur itself. I pulled on that hell, using the connection the demons already had with their home to draw them back together. Everything in its place, just as the Universe (and Odin) preferred. The bond flared to life immediately. It turned out that it was easier to send something back to where it belonged than to call it forth.
The meadow shifted under the gallus demons' feet. The grass yellowed and shriveled, dirt showing through in patches, and the scent of dust wafted up to me. It was bleak, but Aoide had been right; it wasn't Hell exactly. In fact, it must have been day in Kur because the patch of land, and even the air above it, was brighter than the the rest of the half-lit yard. This was the dismal afterlife the gallus demons inhabited, but as evil as they were, they weren't the only beings in the realm. They were part of a balanced environment, and they were needed to maintain that equilibrium—which they instinctively knew. When the demons stood on their own soil again, their shoulders sagged in relief. The prospect of harvesting souls had been tempting, but when it came down to it; there's no place like home.
How perfect was it that I was singing a Dorothy song?
I lifted a fist to the demons in unity and salute, discharging them from my army honorably, and they closed their deadly claws to respond in kind. Fiery eyes dulled down to embers as the demons settled together and bowed respectfully to me. I nodded back, and used the last line of the song to send them home.
I was done raising Hell; at least for today.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gage and Aoide met me at the bottom of the stairs. Aoide ran into my arms and hugged me tightly.
“Thank you, Ellie,” she whispered. “You saved me and my home.” She let me go and hugged Gage. “Thank you too, Gage. You were wonderful, and I love your wings.”
“It was impressive,” I agreed. “That's an interesting half-form you've got, griffin. Now I know why you needed to remove your shoes.”
“I liked the shoes... as I did my new clothing.” He sighed as he shed the useless shirt—and I may have sighed too, but for an entirely different reason. At least his pants were holding together where they needed to. “As far as the half-form, it's just one of many; griffins can choose which parts they alter.” He waved it away like it was minor. “But what you did... I've never seen anything like that.”
“Of course you haven't.” Aoide laughed. “My niece is a spellsinger, don't you know that? There are only six spellsingers in existence, and Elaria is the most powerful of them all.”
My eyes widened over Aoide's praise. I had never considered that I might be more powerful than the other spellsingers. Did they suspect it too? Would it impact my relationships with them? I couldn't see them reacting well to the news that the youngest of their number had surpassed them all in power.
“He knows,” I said softly. “Gage just hasn't seen me in action before.”
“They bowed to you,” Gage shook his head in wonder. “Demons... gallus demons. They are barely above animals in reasoning.”
“Which is probably why my spell worked so well on them,” I noted. “But that's not what we should be focusing on.”
“What then?” Aoide asked as Gage frowned in consideration.
“How they got here in the first place,�
� Gage said for me. “It looks like our monster kidnapper is branching out.”
“Monster kidnapper?” Aoide asked.
“Gage is visiting from Torr-Chathair,” I explained. “Someone went into his realm, stole some olgoi khorkhoi, and then set them loose in Las Vegas. He's here to investigate the theft.”
“What?” Aoide's expression turned horrified. “Why would anyone want to do that? And even if they wanted to, how would they accomplish it?”
“I imagine that they lured the worms through a portal somehow.” I shrugged. “The why of it is starting to concern me more than the how. And if they aren't restricting themselves to Torr-Chathair, we have an even greater problem on our hands.”
“Could be that they were trying to lead us off course; get the other griffins to relax their guard on Torr-Chathair so they can abduct more monsters,” Gage suggested with a pensive look. “We'll have to see what they do next.”
“I'm hoping to stop them before they strike again. But if you're right, then we'll have more monsters to look forward to meeting.” I sighed deeply. “Can you two help me search the island for any clues this person may have left behind?”
“Of course,” Aoide said.
“That's kind of my job,” Gage added.
“Thank you.”
“I'll take the house since I know what was here, to begin with. But first, I'll grab you some flashlights to use outside.” Aoide headed off to fetch the flashlights, leaving Gage and me alone briefly.
“Elaria,” Gage murmured, “I...”
“Let's just get this done, okay?” I suggested gently. “Then we can talk.”
“Okay,” he agreed.
Aoide returned with the flashlights, and we split up to search the island, but it didn't take us long to find the clue. It had obviously been left for us. After I found it, I went back and rounded up the other two. I led them down to a spot near the beach, where a giant boulder sat to one side of the path. I directed my flashlight to boulder, revealing a message written in blue paint: Judgment be upon you.