Dominion: Zoë Martinique Investigation, Book 6

by Phaedra Weldon

  But he never gave me the actual riddle. So…maybe it wasn't something tangible, but something…ethereal.

  The one around his neck created. Creation was a vast word, meaning many things, subject to interpretation. If it were the opposite, then it would be destruction.

  But Joe already had a Destruction Eidolon. I had Banishing, Possession, and Command.

  What was the answer? What would give me the upper hand?

  "So quiet, Wraith? I doubt he has much time left, so I suggest you give me the Eidolons and I will allow you to say your goodbyes."

  And there was another, deeper shade of red on the horizon.

  Red. Destruction. Anger.

  Green. Happy. Creation.

  Blue. Contentment. Banishment? I thought I'd started to see a correlation in the colors—but how could Banishment be contentment? Unless it was one of those weird meanings. Like, when the stone had banished my powers as a child, I'd grown more content out of ignorance? Banishing something could lead to being content, I supposed.

  But purple? Possession. Depression. Yeah, depression did feel a bit like being possessed. Not feeling in control.

  Command. That stone was clear. No color. No emotion. The dismissal of emotion from everything.

  The opposite of Creation is Destruction. The opposite of Possession is Command. The opposite of Banishing is—

  Acceptance.

  One could banish something, or one could accept it.

  But how could this be helpful for us? Or in defeating Zacharel?

  Zoë, ever since this happened to you, I sense you've kept it at a distance. That you've believed in your heart that if you lost yourself to what you were born to, you'd damn your soul for all eternity.

  I swallowed. Yes.

  But what is worse than where we are? Joe is dying—I can feel it. Dags is near, and so is the witch. Everything you hold dear is within your grasp. All you have to do is take it.

  You mean I have to accept it.

  There was a long pause. Yes. Just as you accepted me.

  I needed the Eidolons—but I'd left them at the Society House and in my mom's shop.

  Bring them to you. You made them. Now remake them.

  Was it that easy? Could it really hurt to try? I thought about both Boxes, made a mental image of the two of them merging into one, and then made another image of that single Box beside me—

  My hidden Box formed to my right. I didn't call it or summon it. It was just…there. Gone from Mom's shop, the Society House, to here in Between.

  I reached into the air and slipped my hand into it. I knew by just feeling which was the Banishing stone as I pushed the read-later letter away.

  Once I pulled it free, the blue stone lit up like a tiny azure torch.

  "You…you have the Banishing stone. I thought Gabriel took that from you." He stepped forward. "Give it to me. With that I can banish that damned, irritating Familiar…"

  I didn't bother answering him. I thought of him as nothing more than an irritant bent on personal gain at the expense of innocents.

  I held it in my left palm in full view for the Dominion to see.

  He reached out to take it.

  "You see, Zacharel. I do know which hand gives and which hand receives." I closed my fingers over the stone.

  Now, a year after my meeting with TC, I accepted who and what I was, as I touched Zacharel's outstretched hand with the other.

  My eyes met his. "And which hand takes."

  Chapter Forty-One

  A bright indigo light engulfed the room. Zacharel screamed as the stone sank into my hand and made itself a part of me.

  In that instant, I knew something I didn't know before. My dad was right. There are six Eidolons.

  The sixth was me.

  I was the sixth stone. I am Acceptance.

  Warmth like the naked body of a lover filled me, covered my skin, and I threw my head back, my arms out wide and my wings unfurled, all in preparation to accept—finally—what I was.

  What I am.

  I am the Wraith, the only one of her kind.

  And I was really fucking sick of assholes like this one stomping on my good time.

  When I opened my eyes, the room was the same, but Zacharel was nowhere to be seen. The green Eidolon lay on the ground, and I grabbed it up before I turned back to the cell and yanked the door off the hinges. I felt a slight tingle as my slippers stepped into the puddles of half-dried blood around Joe. He was deathly white, his lips pale and his eyes closed. I lifted him to me and touched his face with my ashen hands.

  "Joe…please…don't leave me. I can't do this by myself." Ice-cold skin. My eyes burned as I made myself hold back tears. I didn't know if Zacharel was gone or dead or sent back to the Ethereal, and at that moment I didn't care. All I wanted was to fix what I was responsible for.

  Me. I'd been the one to make Joe too weak to fight back.

  I glanced around the cell but didn't see his hands. I had one of his fingers safely tucked away—but what freakin' good would that do? Joe was a human! Not a monster…like me.

  You accepted, Zoë. Self-recrimination isn't going to make this situation better.

  "Better?" I pulled him to my chest and stroked his hair. A small part of me was amazed how soft it was. He always wore it spiked up. I kept looking at his eyes, willing them to open as a part of me feared they never would. "How can I make this better? Inanna? I'm no God. I'm a Wraith. I take the dead. I…" And abruptly I knew the answer. "I protect the planes."

  Yes.

  Had I ever proclaimed that before? I couldn't remember ever saying it myself. "And—they have broken the law."

  Yes.

  "The Seraphim, his First and Second Choir. They have profaned the most fundamental law governing the Inner Planes and tried to manipulate the Physical."

  I felt the tug as Inanna moved from my body and created a ghostly image of Eshe to my left. "Yes. And it is you who must punish them. Until you accept all of your gifts, that isn't possible."

  Punish the Seraphim? I looked at her, shaking my head. "I—how can I punish a Throne?"

  "By taking from them what they hold most dear. What is it the Seraphim wants?"

  I looked down at Joe. "I thought I knew the answer to that. And until a few minutes ago, I would have said he wanted the Grimoire."

  "But what can the Grimoire truly do? The Seraphim's ultimate goal has always been to shut the Abysmal Plane away from the Physical. The Grimoire doesn't contain a spell that can do that."

  I kept my gaze on Joe. "Then he only wants the book because of the Revenant spell, and he wants it because of who it's in." I looked up at her. "He believes that by controlling Dags, he can control me."

  "By controlling everyone you love. The best form of control is to take away everything you hold dear." Inanna/Eshe knelt down beside me. "You've taken the first step to becoming what every creature in the Ethereal Plane doesn't want you to be. When your father realized what you were destined to become, he tried his best to prevent it, Zoë."

  "The Banishing stone…" I swallowed as the craziest idea in the world came to me. "The Possession…all the Eidolons…" I licked my lips. "They're a part of me, aren't they?"

  She didn't have to answer.

  I felt footsteps vibrate on the ground before I heard them. The pounding of feet as two people abruptly appeared through one of the doorways.

  My heart leaped into my throat when I saw Dags. He looked…good. A bit dirty, and his clothes could use a good washing. He smiled when he saw us and bolted forward, then stopped again as he saw who was in my arms.

  "Joe!"

  I don't know why I did it—but I pulled Joe away from him. Instinct, maybe? The need to protect him because I'd failed before?

  Dags stopped just inside the cell door and looked at me. "Zoë? You look…different."

  "You look the same. Are you okay? Did Zacharel hurt you?"

  "No." Dags smiled at Inanna/Eshe. It was obvious he didn't know who that was. "Hi. I'
m Dags McConnell." He offered her his hand.

  Inanna/Eshe smiled, but didn't take it. "Darren. It's me."

  He frowned at her for a few seconds, and I watched as he either figured it out for himself, or Maureen or someone told him. His color drained away and he clutched at his stomach. Within seconds, he turned and vomited.

  Dags realized this was Inanna, and Daniel was dead.

  "What did you do to him?" came a voice I never wanted to hear again.

  Inanna/Eshe vanished, called back to my soul.

  Nothing could stop me now. No one was strong enough to hold me back. No Society. Not a damn thing. I made sure Joe was on his back before I moved with lightning speed from where I was to directly in front of Rhonda Orly.

  My hand was once again at her throat, my wings unfurled as my teeth extended and I bared them at her. I lifted her off her feet and delighted in watching her dangle. And then, just to have a bit more fun, I hovered a few feet off the ground just to see what would happen.

  And I was not disappointed. Her damned eyes were twice their size in fear. Her hands grabbed and pulled at mine as I watched her try to squirm her way away from me. She made gestures, but nothing happened.

  Then I saw it.

  A ghost of something around her. I thought of the whirling Veil I'd seen that day in the infirmary, the one encircling Joe.

  Of course! Zacharel had nested himself inside of her Veil, and when I touched him, that's where he retreated. Back to his physical tether.

  I felt incredible power surge forward as I reached in with one hand and grabbed at his essence. He squirmed and fought back. I remembered that night in the club when I'd shoved my hands inside of him to release those souls.

  But there were no souls in him now.

  Rhonda screamed.

  I didn't care. I pulled harder and harder, yanked again and again until I pulled him free.

  That's when he turned on me and tried to envelope me. I dropped Rhonda and used both of my hands. He wasn't a solid form now, but more of a silvery essence, maybe even what a ghost might look like without making a body. And everywhere I touched him, a little piece of him became a piece of me.

  Don't torture him, Zoë. Just take him. Devour him!

  "He tortured Joe!" I screamed, and continued picking off little pieces of him like eating a stick full of cotton candy. "He cut off his hands. He murdered him!"

  I sensed TC near me but ignored his presence, promising myself if he tried to interfere then I'd go after him as well.

  But he didn't.

  In fact, no one came to Zacharel's side.

  And I took him, piece by piece, until there was nothing left.

  When it was done I found myself on the ground, still Wraith, and pulsing with energy as I digested a First Choir, a Dominion, my equal.

  A slow clapping sound echoed in Between, in the building that held too many bitter memories. I smelled her, caught her essence tangled in senses I'd never experienced before. Those of a First Choir.

  Gabriel.

  "That was most excellent, Abomination. I always knew it was better to arrive for the finale and not bother with the middle."

  I looked to my left to see her there, aglow in her Ethereal power. All white, just like my dad had been so many times as he'd stood outside the Abysmal Throne and watched me. Dags had moved into the shadows, having witnessed me nearly kill his girlfriend. And Rhonda? Looked like TC had caught her. She was on her ass to my right, her hand around her neck and her expression—terrified. "I say cowards only come after the fight. Didn't want to get your hands dirty getting rid of that ass, did you?"

  Gabriel continued to smile as if she were having a grand old time. "No. I didn't. Zacharel was never a favorite of the Seraphim. Your great-uncle and he just never got along. But then, Zach never got along with anyone. He and Raz were a pair. You defeated Raz, and now you've helped us by getting rid of Zach. So…" She clapped her hands together and looked at Dags. "I see you're up and out now. That pesky Familiar still up front?"

  Maureen materialized in front of Dags, in full red-and-silver armor with her sword drawn. "Fuck yeah. You wanna piece of me? I'm damned tired of all you assholes trying to control something that doesn't belong to you."

  Gabriel started for Maureen, a huge crystal sword in her own hands. But I moved between them and parried the Cherubim's sword away with my own. "Knock it off, Gabe. They're not why you're here."

  "Well, of course they are. You give me the page so you can keep your foot, and then I can use the page to destroy the Grimoire."

  "What?" Dags said from behind me. "What's she saying? What's wrong with your foot—why is one of them white?"

  "Can it, Darren," Maureen hissed. "Zoë, are you talking about the page I kicked out?"

  I nodded, but kept my eyes on Gabriel.

  "No!" Maureen burst out. "You can't give her that page!"

  "Yes, she can." Gabriel held out her hand, her sword gone. "Time to pay up."

  "I destroyed Zacharel. Isn't that enough?"

  "For your great-uncle, but not for me. The page, please, or I take the foot."

  I moved away from her to the cell where Joe lay alone. "I want to change the deal."

  "No can do."

  "Then no can have."

  "I'll take your foot back, Wraith. And it'll be painful."

  Fuck.

  You.

  I literally growled at her, and was in her face in the most delightful way. "You really think I fucking care right now, you bitch from hell?" My voice echoed inside that damned infernal building. "Daniel is dead because you killed him. My mother is in the hospital because she—" I pointed at Rhonda without looking "—allowed Zacharel into her house. Joe is at death's door because Zacharel took him and thought he'd make a great piñata. So right now, you bitch, do you really think taking my foot is going to slow me down when I come after every goddamn Ethereal in the universe and eat them alive?"

  She blinked. And then blinked again. She never lost that arrogant look plastered across her face. "What exactly did you want me to do?"

  "I want you to repair Joe. Give him back his hands."

  Her eyes widened, and she took a step back. "I can't do that! Zacharel removed them! I don't have flesh to work with."

  "Flesh? All you need is flesh?"

  "I need a piece of what was taken. But if I know that bastard, he destroyed both of the hands."

  Really? I reached out once again and slipped my hand into the Box. My fingers closed over the cold, dead finger and I pulled it out. When I offered it to Gabriel, she made a face. "Make him whole, and the page is yours."

  "But Zoë—" TC took a step toward me.

  I shook my head. "No. It has to be this way."

  "But you'll lose—"

  "I know, Azrael, I know. And it's okay. I can't let Joe die." I looked at my Phantasm. He stared back at me, and after a few seconds he nodded. And I knew from that moment, in my heart, TC would always get my back.

  Always.

  Gabriel picked the finger up between the index and thumb of her left hand. "Gross. But okay. I'm gonna need a bit of that juice you got flowing in you right now."

  "I'll give you as much as you want."

  I followed her into the cell and watched her lean over Joe. She reached her left hand out to me and I took it, and she immediately started pulling energy.

  She pushed the finger at his chest.

  Light illuminated the cell. I closed my eyes and felt the pull on my energy. I got tired and went down on my knees as my own defense kicked in and started pulling back from Gabriel.

  The light vanished.

  Gabriel sat back and supported herself with a hand on the cell wall behind her. "Wow. I haven't done that in a while."

  "Mend a human?"

  "No. Done something nice."

  I think she was serious.

  When she moved out of the way, I crawled on hands and knees to Joe. The bandages were gone and in their place were hands. I pushed back his sleeves to m
ake sure they were actually attached.

  "They're human hands. He can feel. And he can use them like he always could."

  "What about his magic?" TC asked.

  Shit. I hadn't thought about that.

  Gabriel shook her head. "I don't have any control over that." She slowly got to her feet and held out her hand. "Page."

  I put my ear to his chest to hear his heart. And after I heard it beat, I realized I wasn't pulling his energy from him. When I looked at my hands, I realized I was human.

  "Sorry. Took a lot out of you." She snapped her fingers. "Page, now."

  "Zoë, no—" Maureen said.

  I saw Dags stir and come to the cell doorway. He looked so much like a little boy. "Zoë, what is it?"

  And Rhonda?

  She was still there, standing as far from us as she could.

  I pushed myself into Wraith again and it tired me the hell out. I put my hand again into the invisible box and pulled out the page in the plastic bag.

  Gabriel snatched it away and disappeared.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  "That's Gabe. Rude as ever." TC moved around Dags and stepped into the cell. He knelt beside me and moved my hair from my face. "You want to put yourself back together?"

  "I need the last one."

  "Joe has it?"

  "Yes."

  He looked down at the still cop. "I think we can wait for Destruction, don't you?"

  Yeah. I think so.

  I leaned over and pressed my lips onto Joe's. His were warm again, and I wished he'd kiss me back. I had no right to him. Not after the way I'd treated him all this time. But I'd realized that when it came down to the finer points of trust with someone, besides TC, Joe was closest to my heart.

  "I don't understand what's happening," Dags said. "Maureen said that page is what will release Alice and Geist."

  Geist?

  I narrowed my eyes at Maureen. "What's he talking about?"

  "I tore a page of the Grimoire to cause a rift that Alice and I could climb through to get away from Rhonda's page in the Grimoire. The last time she got in the book, I got out and Geist got in, and even though I've been the one in control all this time, Alice and Geist have been on the opposite side of Rhonda's magic to buffer it."