by Brey Willows
“Why are you doing this? What could you possibly want with us?”
He moved away from them and sat on a filthy, sagging sofa against the wall, as primly as if he were in a restaurant. He sighed dramatically. “I didn’t want it to be this way. I really didn’t. I tried it the business way, the way Afterlife would do it. I read the oracle, I figured out who it was referring to and I put together a damn fine plan. One that was working beautifully. Until our flying rat there stepped in.” He waved vaguely Alec’s direction. “If it hadn’t been for her, you’d be doing exactly what I intended you to do, and I’d be so much further along with my plan.”
He stood and brushed dirt from his jeans. “But that’s okay. You’ll both rot here, and I’ll continue on. Sure, it will be a bit slower with just Frey doing it, and Selene would have turned more followers by delving into her demon side, but in the end, I’ll get what I want.”
Alec glanced at Selene, who looked stunned. “And what is it you want, Aka? Better food? An office in the building? You burned down the last one we gave you.”
“Nothing as base as that, Alec.” He ran his hand down Selene’s cheek and laughed when she jerked away. “No. I want the world. And by being so vocal about why people shouldn’t believe in your antiquated gods, Selene and Frey allowed my workers to go among people and sow the seeds of chaos. True, level playing field, chaos. When more people believe in Frey and his…well, my mission, the scales will tip, and I’ll gain control. Especially with the splendid powers of rhetoric I’ve invested in him. Your silly, ethnically diverse gods will fade away, leaving me in charge.” He opened his mouth, and a long, split tongue emerged. He licked Selene’s face, and although she put up her hands to deflect him, it was too late. Brown slime slid down her cheek and dripped onto her shirt.
“And you think we’ll be content to hang around down here while you do all this? You don’t think they’ll be searching for the bridge?”
He shrugged and headed for the door. “They can search all they want. This building is sealed. The outside is stone, the inside is mostly glass, and you’re in a concrete bunker below it. And there’s never been any religion in it, so there’s no line for you to connect to.” He opened the door and grinned at them. “So, yes. I think you’ll hang around down here until I decide to use you as my playthings when it suits me. I’ll be sure to keep the human alive long enough to enjoy her at least once. And I’ll make certain to do it in front of you, Alec, so you don’t feel like you’ve missed out.” He stepped through the open doorway and laughed. “And now, I must go meet with Frey to see how things are progressing. He was, of course, devastated at your refusal, so clearly did I make it known I wanted you there. He’s so easily led, good man. He really believes this is for the best, and that the powers I’ve given him to convince people to come to our cause are meant for the greater good. Ah, well. He has his uses. Good night. Don’t let the daevas bite.”
He closed the door behind him and they stayed silent for some time.
“Is it true?” Selene asked. “Can there really be a place prayer can’t get through?”
“Yeah. Science type places, government buildings, some schools. Places where the separation of church and state are taken seriously, and places where logic and reason are prized above spiritual belief. And being underground won’t help.”
Selene sighed. “Then I guess it’s a good thing that nasty-ass spitball slimed me.” She held up one hand, uncuffed and covered in the slime he’d dripped on her face. “That stuff is really slippery.” She wiped it on her other hand and worked it around the cuff, grimacing as the metal rubbed her skin raw. Soon, the other cuff was off. “Now what? I can’t slide a cuff over my foot.”
Alec thought about it. “If you can get to my left pocket, I’ve got a tiny pocketknife on my keys. I feel like they’re still in there. It might be enough to work the lock on your cuffs.”
Selene got as close as she could and leaned forward. She stretched until she was off balance several times, missing Alec’s body by centimeters. “I’m afraid that if I fall on you, I’ll pull on your arms and wings. I don’t want to hurt you any more than you already are.”
“We’re going to hurt a hell of a lot more if we don’t get out of here quickly. I’m betting Aka hasn’t given his minions orders to leave us alone.”
Selene bit her lip. “Then this might hurt. I’m sorry.” She leaned forward again, this time stretching until she fell forward and caught herself on Alec’s pockets.
Alec swallowed a scream, but she couldn’t keep her eyes from watering. Selene quickly found the keys and used a combination of her stomach muscles and Alec’s body to heave herself back again. Alec let out a shaky breath, fearing the possibility of blacking out again.
“Talk to me. Stay with me, Alec. Breathe, baby. Tell me about Aka. Adam…do you think he sees himself as the father to a new world? Is he clever like that?”
“Clever…maybe. Devious, certainly. Demonic, obviously.” Alec fought the waves of dizzying pain. She allowed herself to fully shift to her real form as a way to conserve energy. It also made her slightly taller, and she was able to take more weight off her arms. “I worked for him for a while, when it was believed furies were a kind of flying demon. He’s twisted and creates havoc for no other reason than to make himself laugh. He’s been a low-level player for a long time. Looks like he wants to come out to play again, and using daevas was a good way to do it.”
One cuff slid free, and Selene went to work on the other. Alec could see her fingertips bleeding as the pocketknife slid in and out of the tiny lock.
“Why does his plan sound plausible? Because it does, and I really hate that it does.”
“I agree. But the oracle says if you come to our side, we’ll win. It doesn’t say we’ll die in a smelly basement next to a nasty old sofa.”
“Proof that the Fates can be wrong?”
“If you’d gone to their side, the oracle said we’d all fade, and a new era, one of darkness, would take place. So as usual, the oracle had a built-in safety net, so no matter which way you went, it would be right. The Fates are good like that.”
“The ultimate politicians. Excellent. Lucky us.” The other cuff slid open, and Selene pushed them way. “How do I get you down?”
Alec looked at the winch system holding her in place. “I don’t know that you can actually undo me. But I think you can let me down. Take the chain off that wall over there, and, hand over hand, bring it down so I can at least stand properly.”
Selene quickly did as Alec asked, the sound of the chain catapulting off the walls around them.
Alec lowered her arms and gasped as her shoulders were relieved of their burden. Her wings ached, but the lessened pressure relieved them too. “God, that feels good. Thank you. How far will it go?”
Selene kept going until the chain stuck, leaving Alec’s hands at chest level and her wings nearly folded.
“That slime must be gone now, right?”
Selene held up her hands. Only brown flakes were left.
Alec thought, and couldn’t find any other solution than one Selene would hate. “The cuffs they’ve used on me aren’t like the ones they’ve used on you. They’re stronger, harder, and wider. That little knife isn’t going to open them.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Baby, you’re going to have to leave me here. The moment you get outside this building you can start calling for help, and it will arrive within minutes. But you have to get away from the building, Selene. You have to. If they keep you hostage, the world is going to go to hell, literally, very quickly.”
“If you think I’m leaving you here, you’re insane. More so than I am, and that’s saying something.” Selene went to the couch and ripped off a section of the cover. She reached in and started yanking and pulling at the ancient springs. She fell back when one snapped free and landed on her already sore wrist.
The snapping sound was almost louder than the chain had been.
She lay on her side, cradling her wr
ist against her chest. Alec could see her taking deep breaths, and once again, her helplessness made her rage inside. “Selene? Baby?”
Selene rolled back to her feet slowly. She picked up the spring, her wrist held protectively against her. “Let’s see if this works on your cuffs.”
She tried, but with one hand, it was nearly impossible, and although Alec tried to help, the thick cuffs meant she had almost no dexterity. “Baby, listen to me. I bet if you fold it over and twist it, you can get the door open. You’ll have to be stealthy, silent, and super-aware, but I bet you can get out of here. If not, they’ll bring you back, and we’ll be together.”
Selene was shaking her head vehemently, tears rolling down her face.
“Yes, baby. You have to do this. You can do this. You’ve got to try.”
Selene rested her head against Alec’s chest and sobbed. Alec rested her cheek on Selene’s head. Sending her out on her own was terrifying, but that was the only game in play. She had to believe in the Fates, and she had to believe in Selene. Everyone has to believe in something.
“Okay.” Selene sniffed and stepped back. She cradled Alec’s bruised face in her hands. “I’ll do it your way. But once this is over, I call the shots once in a while, okay? No more of this ‘Selene, save the world’ crap, understand?”
Alec gave her a tired grin. “It’s a deal.”
Selene went to the door and worked the wire in. Twenty infuriating, frustrating minutes later, they heard the telltale click, and when Selene turned the handle, the door cracked open.
“Go, baby. Go get help. Call for backup when you’re away from the building, and get somewhere safe until it comes. I’ll be right here when you get back. I promise.”
Selene ran over and gave Alec a hard, desperate kiss, ignoring her fangs completely. “You’d better be ready when I get back. I hate waiting around.”
After one more hard kiss, she turned and went to the door. She looked over her shoulder at Alec, staring at her as though to memorize her, and then slipped silently from the room, closing the door behind her.
Alec closed her eyes again, alone in the dark room, powerless for the first time in her existence, with more at stake than ever before. Please, please let her make it through. No one answered, and she swayed there, alone in her chains, letting her home, darkness, take her away.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Selene crept silently through the labyrinthine facility. Half-glass walls leading to a maze of offices and abandoned laboratory spaces made it hard to stay out of sight. Most of the glass was cracked or broken, and many of the walls were smeared with the kind of stuff that had been in her bathroom. Swear words and filthy suggestions were scrawled across doors and even on the ceilings. Cruel, inhuman laughter echoed distantly through the empty halls, and Selene’s skin crawled. Alec. Think of Alec. I have to save Alec. The thought of Alec’s pain steadied her and she continued her slow creep forward, following the dusty green arrows for the emergency exit.
She turned left at the end of a hallway and froze. Voices came clearly from one of the rooms on the right, a room she had to pass to make it to the exit door. So close. She prayed, not sure it would get through yet, but willing to try. She crept close to the door and realized she recognized both voices.
“I told you. I don’t like it. The lady-bat, sure. That makes sense. But Selene is a good person with the right ideas. She just needed a bit more convincing and time. I could have gotten her to turn on the bat and the old man, and she’d have been on our side. She shouldn’t be down there.”
She gritted her teeth. Falconi is one of them. She thought of the strange darkness attached to him, and now she knew where it had come from.
“Which of us knows better? The one with thousands of years of experience, or the putrefying mass of flesh with a lifespan akin to a fly? A ‘good person’ isn’t going to be of any use. We needed to reach her dark side, her father’s side. That’s why I increased your powers of persuasion the last time you spoke with her. But instead, they got to her first, and now she’s useless to us. This is the only way. Don’t turn weak now.”
“I’m not weak. I actually still believe in what I’m doing. I think rational, logical, philosophical thought is better than religion. I still believe religion is the root of the problem. I’m not a fan of yours, but I’ll do what I need to do to make the world better.”
There was a scuffle, and Selene heard an awful gurgling noise. She took a chance and peered around the corner of the doorway.
Aka Manah held Frey off the ground by his throat, looking as irritated as one would if bothered by an insect. He said, “Very soon, I won’t need you. You’re nothing more than a puppet.” As though to illustrate his point, he swung Frey from side to side. “You believe in whatever the hell you want to; I don’t care. When I’ve got what I want, you can join Selene at my feet and discuss how religion is a letdown. In the meantime, you’ll continue to use the powers I’ve given you to convince the world they don’t need the gods. And when those spineless oafs at Afterlife go away, I’ll make the world my dark playground.”
He dropped Frey to the floor, who lay there gasping and holding his throat. Aka turned away and walked toward a desk. Selene knew it might be her only chance.
She scuttled past the doorway.
Frey looked her in the eye.
Time slowed.
He looked back at the floor and she half-crawled, half-ran the rest of the way to the door, waiting for Frey to yell, for Aka to come stalking out of the office.
Instead, only the strange laughter continued to echo, and as she made her way to the door marked Exit, though added below it was “to Hell,” she quietly pushed it open and stepped into the sunshine.
*
“I don’t know why. I can’t understand it. He knows about you, about the others. He knows what Alec is. I don’t know why he let me go. But I heard him defending me. He said I was a good person, that I didn’t belong down there.”
Selene was so tired of explaining. The moment she’d made it outside, she’d made a run for the trees, and once in them, had kept running until she found a tiny village with a small café. She’d found a place in the corner and closed her eyes. She hadn’t wanted to start calling until she had some distance from the daevas nest, just in case they could hear her too. With everything she had, she prayed. She called to Zed, to Meg, even to Death. And when she opened her eyes, they walked into the café, a triad of destruction, vengeance, and hope. And then a guest she hadn’t asked for arrived: her mother, looking dazed and muted. Still, she went straight to Selene’s side and sat, stone-like, beside her. Selene blurted out a condensed version of what had happened. “And Alec…she’s chained up by her wings.” She finally let the tears fall.
“Did you see how many there are working for him?”
“I didn’t see anyone. I heard weird, screeching laughter the whole time, but never saw any of those walking nightmares, and he didn’t say.”
Zed and Meg both pulled out their phones and started dialing. Dani put her hand over Selene’s. “How are you holding up?”
She squeezed her cold hand. “I’m okay, mostly. Tired and pretty bruised. My wrist hurts like a bitch. But more than anything, I’m terrified about Alec’s safety. Her poor wings…”
Dani grimaced. “They know a lot of her power resides in her wings. If they were free, she could probably break the chains, and her snakes would wake up. But bound by metal like that, unable to use her wings, they’ve effectively paralyzed her.”
Selene’s mom reached for her injured wrist and Selene instinctively pulled away, but Chandra gave her a stern look and she capitulated.
Her touch was icy, and although her hands felt like granite, they were gentle. She wrapped her hands around Selene’s wrist and stared at them intently.
Selene whimpered as she felt a bone shift under her skin. It wasn’t from the pain, because there was none, but the creepy feel of it mending turned her stomach slightly. Her mother removed her h
ands and turned back so she was once again facing forward, just her arm touching Selene’s slightly. She was there, but not there. Like the moon during the day. And blindingly bright at night. And dad is a demon. Being a foster kid wasn’t so bad after all.
Chandra’s lips twitched in a kind of smile, and Selene wondered just how transparent her thoughts were. She quickly tried to wall them off and turned to Dani. “What’s going to happen now?”
“Well, my guess is Zed and a few of the other old-timers are going to go in and have a talk with Aka, and get Alec out. After that, we’ll have to see.”
Zed and Meg returned to the table. “Dani, can you stay with Selene? Get her out of here—take her to the compound, and let Cerberus know we’re on lockdown. When we’ve settled things here, we’ll bring Alec there. Love heals and all that garbage.” Zed glanced at Chandra, but clearly didn’t feel the need to address her. He waited for Dani’s response.
Dani smiled her usual sad smile. “Of course I will. I don’t have any pickups to handle personally today, so I’m all yours.”
“I can’t go with you?” Selene asked, knowing full well the answer.
“And risk getting you caught and used as a hostage? Not a chance. We’re going in to rescue one; we don’t want to make it two. And no offense, but there’s not much you can do that a contingent of gods can’t.”
Cars of every kind began pulling up outside, and even a few vehicles that looked more like electric clouds than cars. Many of the deities Selene had seen at Meg’s dinner party showed up, as did more she didn’t recognize. One of them, though—
“Is that God? Like, the Christian one?” she whispered to Dani.
She grinned. “Like I said, they got the big guns in. No one gets to decide on mass chaos without the express consent of the rest of the heads of faith. Certainly not world chaos, that was just stupid and greedy. But that’s Aka for you, no boundaries.”