by SGD Singh
She glared at him, but Nidhan ignored her, looking intently at Silas. The Seer smiled sadly back at him from across the room, and Aquila felt a chill spread across the back of his neck.
What's happening?
Silas leapt out of bed, and everyone froze. He seemed transformed into a different person. All of his old smiling, calm demeanor had vanished, replaced with an intensity Aquila never thought he possessed.
“We have to go,” Silas said, his voice filling the space, his eyes like blue fire. He looked taller somehow, as he tied his curly hair out of his face in a high ponytail, and pulled on his shoes and jacket. “Everybody gear up.” He moved toward the door as Asha hurried to get out of bed. Silas snapped, “Aquila, sound the general alarm. Any Jodha not at the holy water well in ten minutes gets left behind.”
He started to leave the room, then spun back to Jax. “Not you, Jax. You stay here.”
Aquila felt Asha's icy dread as she looked from Silas to Nidhan, begging him to give her brother the same order, struggling not to say anything.
Asha, I wouldn't…
“Don't,” Nidhan growled, and his glare was intense enough to make Aquila consider reaching for his revolver. The Tvastar pointed one giant hand at his sister. He started to say something else, but then shook his head in a gesture of pure disgust and left the room as silently as he had entered.
After shooting Asha a look of stern curiosity, BapuJi followed Nidhan.
He's gonna be fine.
No… Asha swayed on her feet and Aquila rushed to wrap her in his arms. He felt his own chest constrict with her grief. No, he's not, Aquila.
Aquila shook his head. You can't be sure. Silas wouldn't…
Tears filled her eyes, but Asha smiled, her heart swelling with a pride that broke Aquila's heart.
Jax watched them, confused. “What's happening?” she demanded. “Shouldn't you be sounding an alarm or something?”
Aquila jiggled his wrist at her. “Already done. Shouldn't you be at a computer or something?”
Jax made a rude gesture at him that Aquila hadn't realized she knew, and he and Asha both burst into surprised laughter, wiping away their tears.
Jax's forehead scrunched up in that ‘I'm figuring everything out’ look she got whenever no one bothered to fill her in.
“C'mon,” Aquila said, taking Asha's hand. “Let's not leave Mister Badass Commander waiting.”
“He was pretty badass, wasn't he?” Asha smiled again, then stopped, her eyes widening in alarm. “You don't think he's possessed, do you?”
“I think we're about to witness what he can do when Ranya's not protecting his delicate innocence,” Aquila said, kissing her as they left the room.
Jax called after them, “So, I'll just wait here then. By myself.”
Chapter 31
Exactly nine minutes later the safe house vanished in a burst of white light. Asha kept her grip on Silas' hand as they leapt through the flash-portal behind the others and landed on a ground so frozen that her skin felt as if it were burning.
The sky was darker than a cave and it hurt to breathe the air. Asha secured the flap of her hood below her night vision glasses and took in the Infernal Guard airplane beside them and the rocky, barren hills beyond.
Thirty Jodha and one Tvastar looked at her and Silas expectantly, with Nidhan towering over the tallest of them. Asha turned her gaze away from him before the panic swallowed her mind.
The stairs of the plane unfurled and Ursala bounded down them, Ariella close at his heels. But before he even reached the ground, Silas turned without a word and took off at a sprint, and Aquila spun to follow, motioning six others to join him.
Asha stayed rooted to the spot. Her Seer ability felt like it was short-circuiting. One second it told her to go with Silas, but then the next it warned her of danger and death, surrounding the aircraft.
Nidhan grabbed Ursala's arm and swung him around. “Where is she? Where is Lexi?”
Ursala glared pointedly at Nidhan's hand gripping his arm, and Ariella answered. “She's back at the mine. There were Underworlders, Patala Underworlders, and she ordered us to get the Witches out before—”
Nidhan was already running across the frozen ground after Silas.
Asha looked around at the others, wondering how long they all had to live. She felt as if she were going into shock as her mind scrambled with indecision.
“I'm not leaving,” Ursala said, planting himself in front of her. “Order someone else to fly that thing.”
Asha scanned the crowd, her panic and adrenaline rising together. Time was running out. She recognized a Jodha pilot from Kiev HQ.
Maybe there was time if they moved quickly. Maybe…
She signaled for the Ukrainian to take over the aircraft, and added, “Leave now, understood? Now.”
Ignoring Ursala's grin, Asha shifted and took off to follow Nidhan through the inky darkness.
Flying low, she spotted her cousin with Aquila and Silas at the head of a group of Jodha. They had followed metal tracks to a crumbling wood and metal structure leaning against the side of a steep hill.
Asha!
I'm here. Asha shifted to fall into step at her husband's side.
Silas halted, and the group came to a stop, waiting.
Suddenly he spread his arms wide and stepped away from the mine's entrance. “Get back,” he shouted, and Asha realized Silas still hadn't learned the silent signals, having skipped any kind of formal training.
It didn't matter, because a moment later they heard Lexi's scream explode from the mine with a fury Asha had never heard before, and three Underworlders strolled out of the mine's black mouth.
Asha barely had time to notice their terrible beauty, filled with destructive power beyond anything she'd imagined, before she saw they were dragging Lexi, Kenda, and Koko behind them. The three Jodha held by some kind of living rope. Lexi was scrambling to regain her footing, cursing with rage, but Koko appeared unconscious, and Asha winced as his head hit the ground.
Silas threw his arms out again, holding the rest of them back as he bellowed, “You will let them go!”
Lexi's head jerked up, her mouth opening as she looked from Silas, to Nidhan, her expression going in an instant from relief to dread.
Nidhan tried to rush to her, but six people grabbed him and pulled him back.
Silas stepped forward, and the three Underworlders grew still. Everything grew still, waiting. Their smiles made Asha's skin crawl, and she wondered how she could have thought they possessed any kind of beauty.
They were nothing but pure, personified death.
Silas stood with his back straight and his arms outstretched. His bright innocence was the complete opposite of the devouring darkness of the Underworld in every way.
His eyes glowed bright. “Release them. Now.”
The creature who seemed to be made of dead crows laughed, and it was as if the sound came from inside Asha's head. It was like distant rolling thunder and war cannons, mixed with the screams of the dying. It surrounded them, filling the night.
She smiled sharp, jagged teeth. “Or what, child?”
The other two did something with their hands, and Lexi and Kenda cried out in pain as their arms were yanked forward at an alarming angle.
“Or this,” Silas stepped forward and actually touched the Underworlder's forehead before she, or anyone, could react.
Asha screamed, trying to tear her arms from whoever was holding her back, but the Underworlder had already collapsed at Silas' feet. The light from his glowing eyes reflected on the other two creatures as they looked at him, frozen in disbelief for one endless second.
He turned to them, raising his arms again.
The Underworlder who looked half decayed opened her skeletal mouth and screamed then, and Asha's ears exploded with pain as the third and most bizarre of the three, a half-naked creature with a feline head, snarled and yanked the rope, throwing her arms over her head and sending Lexi, Koko, and Kenda flying th
rough the air like nothing more than feathers at the end of a cat toy.
Silas lunged forward at the same instant, taking each Underworlder by the throat, and Asha watched in horrified fascination as they crumbled to the ground in shriveled heaps.
The night grew silent again as they all stared at Silas' back for one endless moment. The Seer didn't move.
Then Nidhan, realizing he was no longer being held back, disappeared into the darkness to find Lexi just as Aquila burst into motion, pushing past the mine's entrance with Ursala close at his heels. Within seconds they reemerged balancing a nearly unconscious Kelakha between them.
Asha felt a wave of panic at the sight of Kelakha, torn and bloody, the best of them… defeated.
“Silas!” Aquila almost shrieked at the Seer. “Do something!”
Nidhan rejoined them from the other direction, carrying Lexi in his arms, and laid her gently against the frozen ground in front of Silas, while the other two Jodha brought the battered and broken Koko and Kenda. Kenda groaned and turned onto his side to reach for his brother, who lay still, covered in something shiny.
When Silas still didn't move, Asha rushed to his side.
He stood motionless, his eyes unblinking.
She held his face in her hands, gasping at the heat that poured off his skin, and tried to heal him. No one else moved, their dread growing with each passing second.
“C'mon, Silas,” Asha said, but her touch was having no effect on him. “Talk to me.”
Then he blinked once, making Asha jump, and whispered, “He's coming. Don't let him… the plane.”
The sound was like a shout in the stillness.
As Asha watched in horror, the Underworlders' corruptive power began to affect Silas. His dark curls turned a snowy white, glowing almost as bright as his eyes in her night vision, and Asha heard a collective gasp from the others.
The Seer collapsed to the ground, his legs twitching against Asha as she tried to hold him steady, fighting to heal him, to pull the repulsive, burning force from him into herself.
Everyone rushed forward to help, but just then the earth beneath them began to fall away, and they stumbled and fell together into a hole, six feet deep. Asha held Silas in her arms, shielding him from what she tried not to think of as a mass grave.
The rocks finally grew still around them, and everyone looked at each other in stunned silence, gathering the other unconscious Jodha into laps, checking their heads.
“Asha!” Nidhan bellowed, breaking the silence, and Asha snapped her attention to him. “Heal them!” He pointed at the injured Jodha, near panic. “They're dying. Whatever that stuff tied around them was, it was toxic or something.”
You want me to take command? Asha could feel Aquila's impatience. He stayed by Kelakha's side, and she saw his lip was bleeding beneath his reflective goggles. His hair was as messy as always, beneath his torn hood. He was still so handsome…
Asha! Focus! Do you want me to take command?
Asha blinked. Toxic. Nidhan said the others were poisoned. She turned to Aquila, not trusting her voice to work. Silas said the aircraft is in danger. I'll… I'll try to heal them, and you—
On it.
Aquila left Kelakha with Ursala and motioned six Jodha to gather around him, and a moment later the warriors rose out of the wound in the ground to follow his orders, and Aquila returned to Kelakha's side, his anxiety like a weight on Asha's chest as he secured his brother's hood.
Asha lay Silas gently onto the ground, securing his hood over his white curls, then scrambled to Lexi's side. She fought down her panic as she realized that they were surrounded by nothing but frozen rock. How would she heal them when there was nothing living other than themselves? She took one of Lexi's hands in hers.
“There's nothing…” she told Nidhan, beginning to tremble. Then she looked up at the inky sky, where the living darkness still spread, moving to blanket the entire world in cold death. “Unless…”
Nidhan followed her gaze and nodded. “Do it.”
Asha closed her eyes, and pictured the injured in her mind. She thought about Kelakha, Lexi, Kenda, and Koko as she raised her arms, drawing power from the Witches' false night. She didn't let herself think about what she would do if this didn't work. If her family died because she couldn't heal them.
Finally, a freezing hatred began to fill her every cell, burning itself into pure power, and Asha smiled through her nausea. The healing had begun to work its magic.
When Kenda began to scream, she was sure.
“Why are you smiling?” he screamed at her, and Asha tried not to laugh with relief, but failed. “That fucking hurt! Dude, your wife is sadistic.”
Aquila slapped Kenda on the back. “She can put you back in your former state, if you keep bitching.”
“No, she can't,” Asha said through her tears. She reached to hug Kenda, but just then Lexi leapt to her feet with a scream of rage, her giant sword in her hand, and everyone froze, watching her.
After turning in a slow circle, Lexi said, “The Morrigan bitch is faster than a fucking mantis shrimp on crack,” and everyone burst into applause. Lexi barely had time to move her weapon out of his way before Nidhan crushed her against him, saying something into her hair Asha couldn't hear.
“The Morrigan?” Kelakha said, sitting up with a groan, and Aquila and Asha rushed to his side. “Helheim nearly had me there for a second.”
“She did have you,” Ursala said, helping Kelakha to his feet, and Asha grinned at him, hugging him before the normally shy Jodha could avoid her arms. “Whatever she did would've killed you, yaar. It was a matter of minutes.”
Koko finally sat up, touching his hair, which was covered in blood. “Remind me never to do that again,” he groaned. “If someone says Goddesses of The Fucking Lowest Underworld, we wait for backup.”
Kenda slapped his brother's shoulder. “Aw, piece of cake, right? I almost got a look under Sekhmet's skirt. If you hadn't—”
“Oh, fuck off,” Koko laughed, then froze. “Wait. Is that Silas? Is he dead?”
Asha didn't have to see his eyes to know he was looking at her with a distinctly accusatory glare.
“He's not dead,” she told him. “He… After killing the Underworlders, he needs to… work their energy out of his system.”
“What?” Lexi rushed to Silas, checking his pulse, smoothing his white hair. “You let him kill? We agreed no one knows what that would do to him! Christ, even Ranya knew not to let him kill!”
Nidhan stepped forward. “No one let him. Silas knew what he had to do, and he did it.”
“Shh!” Asha said. “Is that the jet?” The distinctive sound of an airplane engine rose over the rocky hills.
“They're getting out,” Ursala said, slapping Ariella's outstretched hand. “They made it.”
“No, they're—” Asha whispered, just as fire lit up the night like the desert sun, and flames exploded over the crevice like a blanket of scorching heat. They all fell to the ground as the air filled with the deafening sounds of tearing metal and screaming engines, burning Asha's throat.
And she knew.
The Asura's God of Death had arrived.
Chapter 32
Aquila watched Asha throw her goggles to the ground. Her wide, glowing eyes reflected dread, and he tried not to react. He could feel her grief just under the surface, threatening to break through.
You have Silas. She pointed at the unconscious Seer, then shifted to stand on the edge of the hole in the ground a moment later, her dark silhouette reminding Aquila of an avenging angel as the flames of the destroyed aircraft reached into the sky, turning the night bright as day.
Moving quickly, Aquila removed Silas' jacket and shot the Seer with a green round. He secured the sand cat to his chest with the jacket and motioned for the others to follow him out of the hollowed earth to join Asha.
From the surface, he could see the monster that had destroyed the jet, along with Aquila's last chance to fulfill his promise to R
anya. There were no more Witches alive to rescue.
The creature stood at least seven feet tall and was vaguely humanoid, though it had four arms and a bulging third eye in its forehead. Its skin was the deep black-blue of the frozen sea, with veins like flowing lava underneath shattered china, and its face reminded Aquila of an ugly screaming hog, genetically modified to have giant, twisted tusks. Following the same fashion sense as the creatures Silas destroyed, it wore bones and skulls for clothes, and its hair was like flame, with every shade of red, orange, and yellow standing out in maniacal angles from its hideous face.
Either it didn't have strong senses or it was just ignoring them, but the monster continued to watch the aircraft burn, twirling a long whip that looked as if it were made of spun fire.
“What is that?” Nidhan said.
Koko shook his head. “The Witches called it Yama.”
“As a joke,” added Kenda.
“Not funny,” Nidhan said.
“It's the thing the Asura worship,” Lexi said. “And actually, it looks a little like the depictions of Yama. Just saying.”
Nidhan turned to her. “Seriously? An art lesson? Now?” But then he brushed a strand of hair off her cheek and tucked it behind her ear, and Aquila thought he would kiss her.
“The Asura used Witches to call it here after Ranya declared genocide on them in their own realm,” Lexi continued. “Probably different Witches than the ones who were here. That kind of spell would no doubt kill them.”
Being here killed them, too, Aquila thought. None of the sisters he promised Ranya he would help had survived.
It's not your fault. There wasn't enough time.
When Silas knew—
Right. You mean while Kelakha and Lexi were dying? Then?
Still, I gave her my word.
It's not your fault. They're bet—
Don't. Do not say they're better off. Just… Don't.
Aquila felt Asha's arms around him and he leaned into her. I'm sorry, Aquila.
Yeah. Me, too.
Kelakha let out a raptor's screech, too high for the Underworlder to hear, and Aquila snapped his attention up in time to see six Jodha flying toward them, shifting as they landed. Their clothes were singed, and there were burns and cuts on their faces.