Black Howl bw-3

by Christina Henry

  I felt strongly that it would not be good for me to act like an insanely jealous wife and rip her purple hair out at the roots, so I just said, “His name is Gabriel. And he’s married.”

  She looked from my right hand to his left, saw the matching rings, and shrugged. “Worth a try. So, you want to see what we found?”

  Chloe shot across the room on the casters of her chair and picked up one of the cameras from the pile. Then she used her feet to scoot back to the table.

  She arranged the camera so that the lens pointed at the wall to our right. Then she lowered her hand over the camera and muttered something I couldn’t catch.

  “There’s no on or off switch that we could find,” J.B. murmured. “Chloe figured out by trial and error that you need magic to turn the machine on.”

  A second later the camera sprang to life and pictures were projected on the wall. Some of the pictures moved like video, and some were like camera images. All seemed random. There was a clip of a little boy catching soap bubbles, a gumball whirling down a ramp in one of those big gumball machines with the red top, a girl swinging on a piece of rope that dangled from a tree over a ravine, a half-eaten pepperoni pizza, a fragment of text that came and went too fast for me to read.

  “What is this?” I asked. “It all seems random.”

  “Memories,” Chloe said.

  “Memories?” I asked. “Are you sure?”

  “It’s our best guess,” J.B. said. “And it makes sense. The machine scans people’s brains and extracts their memories, and then when they die the ghost is damaged because most of what made up its identity is gone.”

  I watched a white cloud shaped like a turtle drift by, a large buck leaping in front of a car’s headlights, an older boy picking apples and laughing.

  “Okay, I guess it makes sense. But why take the memories in the first place?”

  “Don’t know. We’re trying to look into that now. Listen, Chloe, can you take a break?” J.B. asked.

  Her eyes slid from me to J.B. to Gabriel. “Top-secret information about to be discussed. Got it. I’m sure I can use a milk shake.”

  She left the room with one last covert glance at Gabriel. I couldn’t blame her for that. He was just about the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen.

  As soon as the door closed behind Chloe, J.B. spoke.

  “You were right—my mother is involved,” he said heavily.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “The spiders,” J.B. said. “My mother breeds them. No one else in the world has spiders like that. So either she’s directly involved in this or she sold the spiders to whoever is. Either way, this goes back to Amarantha’s court.”

  “And Beezle said that the charcarion demons are only present in two courts of the fallen. One of them sounded like a sneeze, and the other one was Focalor.”

  J.B.’s eyes glinted. “And we know that Amarantha and Focalor have worked together in the past.”

  “Yes, but how are they doing it?” Gabriel asked. “Lord Lucifer will surely be watching the two of them most closely to ensure that they do not continue their plans for sedition. They can hardly meet and plan, or even pass messages to one another without arousing suspicion.”

  “So, are we going to Amarantha’s court to confront her or what?” I asked J.B.

  “Well, you have a price on your head in the faerie kingdom…”

  “And that’s different from the regular world how? Lucifer’s enemies try to kill me every other day.”

  “And I’m forbidden from coming to court at this time, as my mother is displeased with me for openly allying myself with you. I haven’t been to court since I was there with you, and I have heard no communications since the edict to stay away.”

  “Come on, J.B., break the rules. Live a little. I’m forbidden from doing stuff that I do all the time,” I said.

  J.B. looked uncertain. It went deeply against the grain of his personality to even consider bending the law. J.B. is very devoted to order.

  “It is the best lead that we have,” Gabriel said.

  “Yeah.” I nodded. “This isn’t just about the ghosts. I still need to find Wade. We know that the kidnapping is tied to whoever is responsible for these machines. If Amarantha provided security in the form of spiders while the machines did their work, then she might know where Wade is being held.”

  J.B. still hesitated.

  “Look, I’m going whether you do or not. So you might as well come with me and try to mitigate the diplomatic damage that you know I’ll do.”

  J.B. and Gabriel shared a look of acknowledgment of the truth of this statement.

  “All right,” J.B. said. “But we can’t go now. I have things to finish here.”

  “Meetings to attend, paperwork to photocopy?” I said sweetly.

  “I know you don’t think much of bureaucracy, Black, but every cog needs to do their part for the machine to work,” J.B. said, annoyed.

  “People are being kidnapped and having their memories stolen. Many of them are dying. You really think the upper brass wouldn’t cut you a break on your cog work?”

  “No,” J.B. said grimly. “You think I’m obsessed with paperwork? You should meet the board members sometime. I’ll come by your house later with a car, around seven.”

  “Won’t it take us a few hours to get to court by car?” I asked.

  “More than a few,” J.B. said. “We’ll arrive in the early morning.”

  “That’ll take too long,” I said. “Let’s portal it.”

  “You can’t portal in and out of Amarantha’s kingdom.”

  “It breaks the rules, right?” I asked. “Who cares?”

  “No, I mean you literally can’t. It used to be possible, but since you and Nathaniel burned down half her forest she’s closed the magical loopholes that allow the creation of portals in her kingdom.”

  “Oh,” I said, and rocked back on my heels, thinking. “Wait. What about portals that already existed, like the one that we found in the alley? The one that led to the swamp?”

  The portal had been in the same alley where we’d found the body of a werewolf and later Gabriel had gone missing. It had been invisible, and I’d discovered it by throwing a magical net over the area.

  “What about it?” J.B. asked. “Surely it’s been closed by now.”

  “We might as well see,” I said. “It will be faster than a car. Once we portal through we can fly to the castle.”

  “Fine, look into it,” J.B. said impatiently. “And let me know what you find. I’ll be at your house later regardless.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  We exited through the door and found Chloe sitting halfway down the hallway eating a gigantic burrito wrapped in foil. She gave the three of us a little finger salute and hopped to her feet, heading back to the room and her work.

  J.B. parted ways with us on the floor of his office. I retrieved the sword from security and Gabriel and I exited through the rooftop door.

  “Do you want to go to the alley now?” he asked.

  “Nah, we’ll wait and go with J.B. later,” I said.

  “Very well,” Gabriel said.

  He took my hand as we flew home. It was lovely just to be with him, not to hide my emotions, to know that I could touch him if I wanted and no one could take him away from me.

  We landed in the backyard, smiling at each other.

  “So I see that it is true,” said a strained voice from the porch, and we looked up.

  It was Nathaniel.

  12

  IF I’D THOUGHT NATHANIEL LOOKED MUSSED YESTERDAY at Samiel’s trial, it was nothing compared to the way he looked now. He was positively ragged. He looked like he hadn’t showered or combed his hair, there were huge bags under his eyes, his shirt had been buttoned incorrectly and the tails were left hanging out of his pants.

  Nathaniel stalked toward us, and I backed up half a step. He had a slightly crazed look in his eye, and I wasn’t sure what he would do.

 
“I did not believe when I heard,” he said. “I did not believe that such a thing would be possible, would be allowed. I did not think you would defy your father and the laws of the kingdom so utterly by permitting this thrall to defile you.”

  Nathaniel raised his hand toward me but Gabriel stopped him with a hold on his wrist. Nathaniel wrenched his arm away.

  “Do not touch me, slave,” he spat. “You have already given me insult by touching my betrothed.”

  “She is not your betrothed,” Gabriel said softly, but there was an undercurrent of steel. “She is my wife.”

  I stepped between them before Gabriel lost his temper with Nathaniel and went all nephilim-power on his ass. I didn’t need another mess to clean up.

  “Leave Gabriel out of this,” I said. “And while you’re at it, leave Azazel out of this, too. This is about you and me. I told you I wouldn’t marry you. Repeatedly. I don’t love you. I never felt anything remotely resembling affection for you. You convinced yourself that I would have to follow Azazel’s word and marry you anyway, but I wasn’t going to do it.”

  “You must follow the accords of Lucifer’s kingdom!” Nathaniel shouted, and he looked totally unhinged now. “Even Lord Lucifer himself must cleave unto them!”

  “Yeah, about that…” I said. “I think he just plays along with the Grigori because it amuses him to do so. Don’t kid yourself that Lucifer has to follow anyone’s whim but his own.”

  “You are speaking blasphemy,” Nathaniel said, and his hand went around my wrist.

  I felt Gabriel move behind me but I put my other hand on his chest, holding him back.

  “Get your hand off me before I blow it off,” I said to Nathaniel. “You’d better remember what I did to you the last time you touched me without permission.”

  The memory hung in the air between us—Nathaniel holding me down, me blasting him with so much power that it left his muscles and bone exposed, unable to heal for weeks.

  He let go of me, his eyes narrowed. “You have done me an insult by treating me thus.”

  I resisted the impulse to rub the place where he had touched me, to wipe my skin clean.

  “You’re the one who’s always going on about Lucifer,” I said. “Fine. My marriage to Gabriel was Lucifer’s will. I’d like to see you try to cross him.”

  Nathaniel backed away from me, his wings spread wide. “You have laid me low publicly, to be humiliated before all the courts. Everyone knows that Lucifer indulges you, that you are permitted to run wild. I do not blame Lord Lucifer for his affection for you, for I, too, was guilty of this.”

  I gave him a look. “The only thing you cared about was the status you would get when I married you. Now you’ve lost that. Don’t act like it was love for me that’s breaking your heart now.”

  “It is all falling apart,” Nathaniel muttered. “I will not forget this.”

  He took flight in a whirl of anger, and we watched him go.

  “Well, I didn’t expect that,” I said.

  “I did,” Gabriel said.

  “Why?” I asked. “Nathaniel’s like J.B. He’s a rule-follower. I figured that whatever Lucifer said, he would go along.”

  Gabriel looked troubled. “You have insulted him on many levels. You have defied your father, who is the head of Nathaniel’s court. You have publicly broken your betrothal. You have shown no regard for his feelings. And, worst of all, you have wed a thrall, the lowest caste of the courts.”

  “You’re not a thrall anymore,” I said fiercely, my hands on his cheeks.

  “Not to you. Not to Lord Lucifer, perhaps. But although the members of the court must now treat me as a free man, they will always consider me a thrall. And it is that insult that Nathaniel will find hardest to swallow.”

  “I don’t care,” I said, and I kissed him. “You’re mine now, and none of them will take you from me. Not Nathaniel, not Azazel, not even Lucifer.”

  He smiled briefly. “My very small champion.”

  “I keep telling people not to underestimate me,” I said.

  “I don’t,” Gabriel replied. “Now let us go inside. Beezle is sure to be faint from hunger pangs by now.”

  I laughed, and we went into the house, a house that felt a lot more like home when he was by my side.

  A little after seven the five of us—J.B., Gabriel, Samiel, Beezle and me—stood in the alley where I’d found the permanent portal. I cast the magical net again to pinpoint its location.

  “It’s still there,” I said triumphantly.

  J.B. shook his head. “I can’t believe my mother wouldn’t have closed the portal. You told her of its presence.”

  “Maybe she wasn’t able to close it. I told Gabriel there was something about this portal that seemed very permanent,” I said. “Regardless, we can get in from here a lot faster than if we drove.”

  Samiel tapped my shoulder. I don’t know if this is such a good idea. Beezle said the last time you came through here there was a big, tentacled monster.

  “Yeah,” I said, remembering the horrible squishy thing in the swamp. “But I killed it, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

  Gabriel raised an eyebrow at me. “You do not think that Amarantha will have replaced that monster with another? The portal leaves the border of her land open to attack.”

  “And I suppose you all think that Amarantha will just let us drive up to the front gates like we did last time,” I retorted. “What with the price on my head and all.”

  “I suppose this is the best way,” J.B. said reluctantly. “There is likely to be heightened security everywhere. My mother was paranoid even before you managed to kill two of her favorite pets.”

  “Five now,” I said, remembering the spiders in the warehouse.

  “I wouldn’t mention that if I were you,” J.B. said. “We want to gather information, not provoke her into trying to kill you on the spot.”

  “For Maddy those two things are often intertwined,” Beezle said.

  “Remind me again why you never stay home anymore?” I asked.

  “Your life would be a lot more boring without me,” my gargoyle said.

  We all lined up in front of the portal, Gabriel staring at me blandly when I tried to step in front of him.

  “You’re not my bodyguard anymore,” I said.

  “Call it the right of a husband,” he said, and disappeared inside.

  And the right of a brother-in-law, Samiel added, nudging me out of the way and hopping into the portal behind Gabriel.

  I looked at J.B., who appeared ready to knock me out if I tried to go before him, and sighed. “Fine, fine. Go on, be a man.”

  When they had all gone through I glanced over at Beezle, who was hovering near my right shoulder.

  “Do you have some deep-seated need to prove your masculinity by going into the portal ahead of me?”

  “Hell, no. I might get hurt,” he said. “Put me in your pocket. I almost fell off last time we went through one of these.”

  I tucked Beezle into my inside pocket. Just his horns and his eyes were visible above the lapel of my coat.

  “Heigh-ho, silver!” Beezle said.

  I stepped into the portal, eyes squeezed tight, and felt the familiar sensation of being squashed into a pancake while traveling at approximately eight million miles an hour. A second later I flew out at the other end, determined not to land in the swamp on my face this time.

  I needn’t have worried. We weren’t in the swamp. We were in front of Amarantha’s castle.

  “Well, I was right. It did take less time to get here than by car,” I said.

  I touched down lightly on the ground and joined the boys, who all stared at the castle. We were not in front of the structure but rather on the opposite side of the moat that surrounded it. The drawbridge was up and everything was weirdly silent. A half-moon shone, leaving way too many shadows.

  “This isn’t right,” J.B. finally said, and his voice was barely above a whisper. “This is the time of night when
the court is in full swing. It’s usually like a never-ending party.”

  I looked up at the catwalk on the outer wall. There were no soldiers patrolling there and no torches lit anywhere that we could see. All was dark and quiet, almost as if the castle had been abandoned.

  I expelled a breath. “We’re not going to find out anything just standing here. We’ve got to go in.”

  Gabriel and Samiel nodded, but J.B. just stood there, fists clenched.

  “J.B.?” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder.

  He spoke through gritted teeth. “She is my mother. I hate her more than you can imagine, but she is still my mother.”

  And you don’t want to go in there and find her dead, I thought, filling in the blanks. I squeezed his shoulder and made him look at me.

  “Whatever is in there, you won’t be alone,” I said.

  He nodded tightly, and we all took flight. As we soared over the outer wall and the courtyard I looked down. There were several cars in the courtyard, but they appeared abandoned. Doors were opened, and I thought I might have seen a skeletal hand hanging out of one of the windows, but I didn’t stop to investigate.

  We landed a few feet before the large front door. It was ajar, and there was a dark smear on the heavy wood that could have been blood.

  The whole place had the unnatural calm that followed postapocalyptic calamity. I half expected rotting zombies to come shambling out of the castle at any minute.

  “Does anyone else think it’s a good idea to go home now and pretend that we never saw this?” Beezle said, his head sticking out of my jacket, and his voice seemed unnaturally loud in the extreme quiet.

  I patted his horns. “Just make sure you stay in there when the inevitable freaky thing shows up.”

  “Don’t need to tell me twice,” Beezle murmured.

  Gabriel conjured up a ball of nightfire. It floated above us and ahead, slipping into the crack of the open door.

  He followed it silently, pushing the door open farther. The creak of the hinges sounded like an explosion, and we all paused, holding our breath, but nothing roared out of the darkness.

  I fell in behind Gabriel, followed by J.B. and Samiel. We were in the receiving foyer, facing the long central hallway of the castle. The frozen knights that lined the walls stood like accusing sentries.