“I’ll find out what I can, but they don’t trust outsiders like me. The Order has a bad reputation since we barred the Tower doors to most of London’s population. Plus, people are more spooked than ever in the past few weeks.”
I frowned. “Now? Why now? The Hunter is gone.”
“People are afraid of what they don’t understand. And right now, there’s a new puzzle haunting London’s streets.”
“What’s that?”
“Humans are dying, just like they have been for over a year now. Starvation, disease. Except now, their bodies are going missing. They’re buried and dug up again. And no one knows why.”
A cold shiver rippled over my spine. I had no idea what that meant, either, but it didn’t sound wonderful. If I had to guess, humans might be eating the dead, and I was superstitious enough to believe that was a line that should never be crossed without inviting the wrath of the gods.
Chapter 6
Moonlight washed over the darkened landscape. I stood before the window of my room, staring at an unlit candle.
To an outside observer, it may not have seemed the best use of time given our current, desperate situation, but I needed to test my new powers to see if I could use them. I wanted to create the illusion of a flame. I squinted my eyes, failing to spark anything before me.
A cool breeze filtered in through the open windows, rippling over my silk dress and raising goosebumps on my skin. The wild symphony of the Old Gods sang in the back of my mind.
I closed my eyes, imagining a flame dancing at the tip of the wick. When I opened them again, a spark of light burst into the air before dying out again.
Almost.
I still had time to work on this skill—assuming it had been real.
But right now, I had to speak to Hazel.
I pulled open the door, crossing into the hallway. I had a good idea where I could find my sister. As much as I’d tried to keep her away from the bar, it had become her favorite haunt.
I hated the idea of lying to Hazel, but I supposed Yasmin was right. I had to suspect everyone.
As expected, I found her sitting in the bar’s shadows, nursing a bright blue cocktail by herself. She leaned back in her wooden bench, raising her glass. “Sister. You look better.”
“Well, I was in bed for three days.” I frowned at her cocktail. “Are you just helping yourself in here?”
She took a sip of the disturbingly fluorescent drink, ignoring my question. “Since you’ve recovered, does that mean we’re going after Adonis?”
“I have a plan. But I’ll need your reptilian friend to give us a ride to Sadeckrav Castle.”
And here was the lie. A lie was no different to any other performance, right? Put on a good show, Ruby.
“And then what?” she asked.
“You can’t tell anyone this. But Yasmin is connecting us with a demonic assassin named Balam. He’s going to arrive, cloaked in darkness, at the Porte de Richelieu at the Louvre. He’ll slaughter everyone in his path until he gets to Adonis.”
“Just one demon?” she asked.
“He’s a legendary assassin. That’s all it will take.”
“What kind of demon?”
She was asking for an awful lot of details, here. “An alû demon. He’ll be completely stealthy.”
“Interesting.” She lifted her cocktail glass. “You want to stay for a drink? I call this the Apocalyptic Julep. It’s three parts whiskey, one part vodka, some of the blue alcohol, and some other number of parts of that green stuff.”
I gagged. “Midori?”
“I guess. What the fuck is a julep, anyway?”
“Not that.” I rose. As soon as I got the chance, I was going to throw all this alcohol away. But first—I had to move on to my second lie. “I can’t stay for a drink. I need to get ready for our trip. Find Uthyr, and let him know we need to get to France.”
I found Elan in the kitchens, rolling out pastry dough on the countertop. Flour covered his sweatshirt, which featured a cartoon cat hanging from a tree and the words Hang in There!
Really, there was no way in hell Elan was a double agent, but I had to dot all my i’s and cross all my t’s.
A steaming Cornish pasty lay on the table, and my mouth watered. “Mind if I grab this?”
“Go for it.” Elan’s cheeks had their characteristic ruddy glow.
I bit into the rich beef and potato filling. For the love of the gods, we can’t lose Elan.
“I need your help, Elan.”
Shock lit up his features. “Mine?”
I nodded. “I want to get Adonis back from Sadeckrav Castle, and I’m gonna need a team.”
“You want me to be part of your team?”
“I need people I can trust.” I glanced furtively around me. “The truth is, I don’t trust Kratos, and I want someone to keep an eye on him. Do you think you can do that?”
“Of course.”
And here comes my next lie.
“Good. We’re taking a flight on Uthyr tomorrow. Yasmin has hooked us up with a legendary shadow demon assassin. He’ll be glamoured as an angel guard, and he’ll waltz right into Aereus’s main entrance.” I bit my lip. “Just please don’t tell anyone else of the plan. Not even Hazel or Kratos. I’m not sure I can trust them.”
He smiled, his cheeks dimpling. “I’m honored to be part of your team.”
Before I even got to the Celestial Room in the Tower of Silence, the rich smell of cedar wafted through the halls, curling around my body. Goosebumps rose on my skin, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the drafty castle air that skimmed over my silky dress, or the raw power I often felt emanating from Kratos whenever I got anywhere near him.
On the top floor of the Tower of Silence, two armored guards stood before a heavy wooden door. Without a word, they shifted aside, and the doors swung open.
Under a large glass dome, Kratos moved over the floor, carving his sword through the air. He was shirtless, and silver light washed over his chiseled muscles. A faint sheen of sweat covered his body, and he seemed to be fighting invisible attackers with a level of viciousness usually reserved for virgin night at the vampire ball.
Unless he lost his mind completely, I had a feeling that once he finally found his way out of his castle, the man would have no problems finding someone to stroke him to perfection.
Perfection … a perfect paradise….
For a moment, the hollows of my mind flashed with vivid images—a cottage in a garden by a river’s edge, the leaves outside tinged with autumn gold. Adonis, sat at table before a roaring fire, with a bowl of soup in his lap.
Paradise.
Distracted, I stumbled. My phantom life—the one with the cottage and the soup—had somehow seemed more real than what was actually going on now. I blinked, and it took me a moment to realize I was still in the Celestial Room, with a shirtless horseman of the apocalypse. These gemstones were really fucking with me.
Kratos stared at me, lowering his sword. His body looked rigid with tension. “Are you all right?”
I clenched my jaw. “Yes, why?”
“You don’t seem yourself.” He lifted his sword again for another brutal slash through the air.
“Neither do you. Working off a little tension, are we?”
Slash. “I have a lot on my mind right now. What’s your excuse?”
I brushed my fingertips over the gemstones in my forehead. “Just getting used to my new powers, I think. They can overwhelm my thoughts.” I wasn’t about to tell him about my new ability to conjure illusions out of thin air, but it was obvious something had changed about me. “I have to resist their influence, I think.”
In fact, I had to resist my own intense fantasies.
He lowered his sword, but his knuckles had gone white on the hilt. “Resisting urges is something that I understand well.”
True—a thousand years of abstinence couldn’t have been easy. “How did you manage it?”
He closed the distance between us, his gold
en eyes piercing in the darkness. “When the temptations of the flesh began to lure me in, when a beautiful woman’s body and her scent drew me closer, I would remember my mother’s death. It killed my ardor.”
It did sound like a mood killer. “What happened to your mother?”
“She was a Viking warrior. A shield maiden. She was captured during a raid in Britain and burned to death for witchcraft. I was only eleven. It wasn’t a fast death, either.” His eyes took on a faraway look. “But her dreams for me were clear—that I fulfill my destiny when the time came.” He met my eyes again, his gaze sharpening. “I’m afraid I would have disappointed her.”
I didn’t say what I was really thinking—that it was a cruel thing for her to ask, and she sounded like a shitty mother.
He closed his eyes, running his hand over his heart. “When I thought I might give in to the temptations of the flesh, I thought of her dying body. I thought of the curse that the Heavenly Host placed on humans—the curse of anticipating mortality. My mother knew she was going to die, and thinking of that killed my cravings.”
So Kratos could be a bit of a downer. And clearly, he was having something of a hard time adjusting to his new, curseless life. Was he regretting it?
I cocked my head. “And after all those years resisting temptations, what made you change your mind? Why did you want the curse removed?”
“Because I never asked for this. My destiny will be my choice. I am Conquest, and I control my fate. Not the memory of my mother. Not the Heavenly Host. No one but me.”
Reasonable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure his method would work for me. If I summoned my worst memories, they’d drive me insane: my mother’s torn arm after I’d savaged her in one of my feral states; Marcus being slaughtered before my eyes; Adonis, after I’d killed him. I was already fighting madness as it was.
He looked me over slowly. “You’ve made a rather amazing recovery.”
“I have. And I’m ready to go after Adonis now.”
Slash. “I haven’t come up with a plan yet. Like I said. I’ve been distracted.”
And also, you don’t really care that much if Adonis is tortured within an inch of his life. “What if I have a plan?”
Slash. “You? What’s your plan?”
“The Order is on our side. I’ve met with one of their agents. She’s offered sending us an assassin, who I will glamour as a cherub. He’s going to sneak right in to the Porte des Lions entrance. Just—don’t tell anyone else. I’m not sure I can trust anyone. Not even Hazel.”
He pivoted, his sword carving a ferocious arc. “And when do you plan to travel?”
“Tomorrow. I want you to come.”
“Fine.” A hint of anger laced his tone.
The stones in my forehead began to heat up. Rid the earth of the angels…
I clamped down on the voice in my mind, but the sentiment remained. If Kratos betrayed us, I would use my new powers to end him, fast.
Chapter 7
I wrapped my arms tightly around Kratos’s neck, while strands of my red hair whipped in front of my eyes. As we soared over the English Channel, the briny scent of the sea whispered through the air. I carried my bow and arrow on my back, and a poison-tipped knife at my belt. I hardly went anywhere without my weapons these days.
Just above our flight path, Uthyr carried Elan, Yasmin, and Hazel on his back.
Yasmin had insisted that everyone come. If we found out one of them was a traitor, she wanted them dealt with. Fast.
Except—no matter what Hazel might have done, I wouldn’t let anyone touch her.
Exhausted, I blinked my eyes, fighting to stay awake. Last night, I’d spent hours in one of Kratos’s libraries with the curtains closed. I’d needed time to practice my new illusion-conjuring skills. Instead of sleeping, I’d managed to summon a menagerie of creatures inspired by the medieval books and tapestries I’d found: cats with weirdly human faces, men with arrows up their butts, medieval rabbits who stood on their hind legs and wielded swords, knights fighting giant snails….
I’d learned two things. One, medieval artists were into some weird shit.
And two, the key to creating illusions was to turn off my thoughts. I had to summon the images vividly in my mind’s eye. Then, they’d simply appear around me. But if any amount of chatter started flowing in my mind, it ruined the whole thing. The illusion would pop like a bubble before me. Basically, I had to get all Zen.
After a night of practice, I was pretty sure I’d be able to summon the illusions I needed.
“Can you glamour all of us?” Kratos’s voice was low in my ear. “At least make us less noticeable?”
I nodded. It was time to go into stealth mode. I closed my eyes, summoning a glamour of unobtrusiveness.
By the time we reached Paris, it felt like we’d been flying for days. In synch with the dragon, we swooped lower over the city.
I gazed below at an encampment in one of Paris’s parks. Tangerine rays of light slanted over a park dotted with tents and fire pits. Small gardens for growing food spread below me, and children wandered among them. I watched a dark-haired toddler sitting by his mother stuff his face with what might be mashed potatoes. Here, even among all the death of the Great Nightmare, life was thriving. And if we didn’t stop the horsemen, all this would turn to ash.
We stood in the Jardin des Tuileries among the dead trees, staring at the Louvre. Outside the main entrances to the old palace, a few cherubs milled around with angelic soldiers.
Now, all I had to do was create my illusions and find out if one of my team had passed on the information to Aereus.
I met Yasmin’s gaze, and she nodded curtly. She was the only one here I hadn’t lied to, the only one who actually knew what was about to happen.
I stared at the palace before us—the pale golden stone, ruddied by the setting sun. Adonis, I’m coming for you.
What had Aereus done to him in his palace? I couldn’t think about the torture garden, the Catherine wheel—
Stop.
I swallowed hard. I needed my mind to go quiet if I was going to get this to work.
Hazel nudged me. “Where is the assassin?” she whispered.
I shot her a fierce look. “Shhhh.”
Adonis, are you here? I felt a warm, tingling tug on my shoulder—the exact place where Adonis had marked me. He was here. Even if I couldn’t hear him now, I could feel him.
Let your mind go quiet, Ruby.
I took a deep breath, focusing on stilling the chatter in my brain. I closed my eyes, imagining Eden before the fall—before language ruined everything for everyone.
Sunlight streamed through the fig trees, and a deep blue river rushed through it all. My back arched as my body surged with a power older than words. Paradise.
And in my mind’s eye, I conjured the three assassins—a wisp of darkness at the Porte de Richelieu for Hazel, a cherub at the Porte des Lions for Kratos. And for Elan, an angelic soldier marching for the main entrance.
I opened my eyes again and smiled as I watched my creations crossing the stone piazza. Slowly, I scanned the others in my group—each of them watching the entrance I’d told them about.
As my glamour worked, my body surged with a song of ancient magic, my skin tingling. I stared as one of the entrances burst open, giving away our informant. Dozens of angels streamed out, swords drawn, to surround my illusion, and shock slammed into me.
They’d been expecting him. I made him turn and run, sprinting away from them, and they followed the illusion in hot pursuit. A stream of angel soldiers rushed out of the Louvre, following him.
And now I knew that Elan was our traitor. Rage ignited in my mind, and I whirled on him, teeth bared.
“What in the gods’ names is going on?” asked Kratos.
I could feel myself going feral, about to rip Elan to pieces. “What’s going on,” I said, “is that I was testing you all to see who was leaking info. And Elan is the one feeding information to the other horsemen. I
sn’t that right, Elan?”
I felt a sharp shove from the side. “You were testing me, too?” said Hazel. “Asshole. You should have known better.”
Elan stumbled back, trembling in his cat sweater, his eyes wide. I nearly felt sorry for him—apart from the fact that he was responsible for Adonis’s capture.
“So, Elan—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Kratos rushed for him, lifting the wiry fae by his neck. “Explain yourself, fae.”
Elan emitted only a choking sound, his face turning red.
“He can’t speak while you’re strangling him,” I pointed out.
Kratos let him drop to the ground, and Elan looked up at Kratos, his entire body shaking.
“Adonis always hated me,” Elan stammered, meeting my gaze. “He hates the fae. He’ll always hate the fae. Don’t you realize that? He thinks we’re animals. He’ll never—”
I hardly even saw the gesture Kratos made—just a subtle flick of his wrist was all it took to sever Elan’s head from his body.
I grimaced at the sight of his body collapsing to the stones, blood pooling around him.
Kratos turned back to me. “I thought we’d heard enough.”
Hazel crossed her arms. “Okay, jerk. Now you know who the leak was, and that it wasn’t me, which you should have already known. So what’s the actual plan?”
Sunlight glinted off Kratos’s armor. “You’re the Bringer of Light. You’re supposed to be able to defeat the Heavenly Host. You blocked them from the earth one time. Can’t you do it again?”
I shook my head. Not without dying, so … I was holding off on that for now. “In theory, yes. Except—every time I try to use powerful magic, I go feral. I lose control, forget what I’m doing. My teeth come out. The Old Gods take over my mind completely, and I can’t control the magic.”
Kratos looked unimpressed. “I think I can manage you, Ruby. You need to at least try.”
I didn’t want to explain all of it. That if I used the magic of the Old Gods to its full extent, it would kill me. News like that would just extinguish all hope.
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