Petra placed her hand inside the bag and winced. “You’re the best of all worlds, Amos. Human, angelic, and demonic. Your power will be unrivaled once it’s fully harnessed. And your momma is better than a pureblood succubus. Pandora ups the ante where she’s concerned as well. That type of mojo, when manifested properly, can rival Daddy’s angel and you can be sure, he’ll shape you to his preference. If all of Daddy’s plans come to fruition, a new trinity will evolve. Father, Son, and Holy Mother…the three of you. Each of you will work miracles at Daddy’s discretion, convincing people you’re all gods. At first, people will have the privilege of deciding if they wish to worship you, but as your authority grows stronger from the prayers you’ll receive, he’ll ultimately demand worship, and won’t tolerate any lack of devotion. It won’t take long for him to outgun God and when he does, Nix will open the door to Heaven’s destruction. All of the good in humanity will be destroyed from that point forward. Can you imagine such a world? Do you want to be a god of that world?”
The tidbit about Nix’s part in the plan stirred whispers among the Birminghams, but none of them questioned the statement. At least not yet.
Madison clenched the back of the chair she stood near, Micah’s blasphemous plan making her reel. Petra turned to her.
“So now you know, Madison.” Madison nodded slowly, thankful Petra answered the question she wouldn’t answer the other night. “I vow to you both right now, I’ll follow you regardless of the path you decide to take.”
Silence as thick as death weighted the room. Zen glared at Madison’s demon step-daughter. She couldn’t get a read on his thoughts, which worried her. But the ramifications of what she declared, affirming she fought for them regardless of side, bothered her. The avowal sounded too reverential and too much like what Micah wanted.
“Right.” Alessa broke the tense quiet clogging the room. “I’m taking the backpack and I’m following you into Hell. But, if you decide to go demonic, I’ll have to think on it and get back with you because that’s outside the parameters of our original pact. Deal, Commander in Chief?”
That snarky comment lessened the anxiety a smidge and Madison smiled.
“I’m not your Commander in Chief, Alessa. I hope to still be your friend when this is over.” She scrubbed her palms over her face. “Shit, I need a drink.”
“No liquor. You need to say clean.” Zen placed her knife, the one Nix had given her for her thirtieth birthday, on the table and spun it. How poetic. Alessa would sell her soul to save Nix, and they’d do it with the blade purchased by him. She bet when he selected the weapon he never envisioned it would be used to sever his lover’s soul from her body.
She glanced at her watch. Five minutes to four. Her nerves tangled in a hard knot in her belly and she death-gripped the chair. “I can’t do this, Alessa. And you’re crazy for agreeing.”
No one is worth selling her soul. No one! Am I really going to let Alessa damn hers for Nix? But without her, Nix would remain damned. Amos was adamant about that fact.
Zen placed a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down onto the seat. Madison tried to shove her fingers through her hair, but she’d pulled it back into a tight ponytail, so she ended up with her fingers lodged in the trapped strands.
Zen tugged her hands away from her face, dislodging wayward strands of hair she could see out of the periphery of her vision, and knelt in front of her. He placed her hands on his knees, but held on tight. “Do you believe Phoenix is still worth this adventure?”
Adventure? Ha! Replace ‘adventure’ with ‘suicide mission’ and the question would be accurate. Getting Nix out of Hell was the only hope that soothed her doubt. Dragging an accomplice into Hell with her…worried her.
“Yes, Zen, you know I do. But I can do this alone.”
“No, you can’t. You need Phoenix’s lucky charm or the mission fails. It’s the only reason why we sought out Alessandra to begin with. Amos told you this. Is Amos ever wrong?”
“You know Amos is right, honey,” Georgie added from the far end of the table.
Madison didn’t look her way. She glanced at Amos, who grinned, blew on his fingernails and buffed them on his shoulder. He puffed out his chest in mock superiority and Madison smiled. But Zen wasn’t finished.
“Those marbles of his are impressive, Madison.” She agreed, but they scared her so much she couldn’t think straight. “They’ll help. You can’t toss them throughout Hell and snag Phoenix at the same time. You need Alessandra for that. You’ll own her soul, so you can command her out of Hell at any time. And”—he squeezed her hands— “because she’s your property, no one else can harm her. Not even the Kings.”
He might be right, but that didn’t mean she liked it. She tried to tug her hands out of his grasp to shove them back through her hair so she could think, but he wouldn’t release them.
The grandfather clock in the hallway tolled the fourth hour.
Taking a deep breath, she stood and nabbed the still-spinning blade off the table. “Ready, Alessa?” she asked and slashed her palm before she lost her nerve.
The other woman approached, and squeezed her unwounded hand as if she understood Madison’s internal struggle. “Let’s fuck Micah up together.”
“I offer you a deal, Alessandra D’Angelo, with a Queen.” Alessa started nodding before Madison finished the first sentence. “By accepting my offer, you will agree to venture into Hell with me to save Phoenix Ross Birmingham.”
“Yep, and I also agree to help you kick Nix’s ass when we get out of Hell for making this idiotic deal.”
Madison didn’t feel much like laughing. Something alien shifted dark and needy through her as she uttered the words to seal Alessa’s doom. Zen placed a hand on her shoulder, but whatever moved inside her didn’t settle. “If you make it out alive, your soul will return to you automatically. If I die, your soul will return to you automatically. All I ask in return is your complete obedience. Do you accept the terms of my offer?” Freaky that making a deal came thoughtlessly to her. Proof she was hell-born.
“Yep, I sold you my soul the day we met.”
“As with all soul deals, they’re sealed in blood.” Madison slashed Alessa’s palm, her hand shaking so badly the cut was short but jagged. She waited for Alessa to place their hands together. When she didn’t, Madison instructed, “As acceptance, you must commingle our blood. I cannot do it for you.”
Alessa nodded and placed her palm over Madison’s and tightened her grip as if they would shake hands.
“I claim your soul as mine,” Madison whispered as their blood mixed. Raw hunger, like she’d never before experienced, seared her body. Instinct to drain Alessa’s essence warred with her morals, and she just managed to resist consuming her soul. That path would lead to her friend’s death.
Alessa’s spirit slammed into her and she jerked at the impact, her teeth jarring together with a loud snap. Breathing became overrated as a misty haze spiked green and yellow prisms throughout her vision. Zen’s chest connected with her back, offered support for legs that’d grown rubbery.
Having Alessa’s soul short-circuit her insides left her flesh sensitive, tender to the touch. A hard object formed between their compressed palms and Madison disconnected from the other woman. Alessa slumped into a chair as Madison peered at the crystal in her palm, the physical formation of Alessa’s essence.
“Your soul, Alessa.”
The crystal shifted and pulsed with the colors of Alessa’s aura.
“So pretty,” Petra said from across the room.
“Can I feel it?” Alessa asked.
No! “I command you to your knees.”
“Madison!” Zen jerked her as Alessa went to her knees without hesitation.
“Just seeing if it worked, Zen.” A prevarication. The power to dominate throbbed like an angry drumbeat.
“You can’t lie to me and you know it,” Zen said silkily into her ear. “Control your demon or I shut this mission down now.”
“Get up, Alessa,” she instructed, breathing deeply, more than a little frustrated that Zen thwarted her control.
Her eyes migrated to Georgie. The psychic nodded her head. Silent encouragement for ‘you can do it’? She hoped the hell not because it rather irritated her edgy demon.
Zen wrapped his arm around her collarbone, just below her throat, and clamped his hand on her opposite shoulder. “This is your final warning. Get your demon under control, Madison.”
Mutiny scuttled through her head. Could she get past Zen? Was he really fast enough if she wanted—
“Do not try it.” It sounded like he spoke through clenched teeth.
PowerPowerPower, Pandora screamed like a maniac and she winced from the octave. Her right eye twitched, her ears buzzed and her—Zen settled the Pandora-power.
“Phoenix Birmingham isn’t worth what you put yourself through.” Zen spoke low, so muted it was unlikely his words carried to the others.
There wasn’t a man better than Nix—except for maybe Zen. Anger shifted into her spine and she put an elbow into his gut.
The noise Zen made sounded like a creepy laugh coming from him, kind of Freddy Krueger style. Zen could make Krueger flee in terrorized trauma. He rarely laughed and thank God because it sounded wrong on so many levels.
“I knew that would rile you back to yourself. You better get it together, Madison, and fast, because I won’t be in Hell to reseal the cracks. And that little something of yours I possess, I will not hesitate to crush it beneath the heel of my boot.” Neither of us wants Amos to suffer that sorrow, he added the final words telepathically.
“You don’t wear boots.”
“You know what I’m implying.”
How could he understand that analogy and not get so many others?
“Alessa, the commands aren’t effective until I reach Hell. Understand?”
Clenching her eyes tight, she dragged in several long, cleansing breaths, her heart heavy with the knowledge she had taken one step closer to becoming a full-fledged demon.
“Take your soul, Alessa.” Her high-pitched voice sounded stressed, every muscle strained against handing over the small piece of her friend.
“Nope, you keep it.”
Her eyes snapped open. “Alessa….”
“I sold it to you, Madison. I want you to have a reason to come out of Hell.”
Those words warmed her. “Thoughts of Amos will give me the stamina I need.”
“A child’s love can challenge a woman only so much. I fear without you admitting your feelings for Nix, you’ll crash and burn.” Alessa squeezed Madison’s hand. “You need something to look forward to, something more than another fight.”
“Nix is not mine. There is another woman meant for his heart. Georgie has confirmed this.”
“That man has shared many things with me, Madison, but he has never shared the name of another with me.”
Madison smile. Of course he wouldn’t share the name with Alessa, since she was the woman. She squeezed Alessa’s shoulder. “No. The other woman is like a sister to me. Trust me on this one.”
Alessa shook her head and Madison couldn’t understand why she pressed the conversation. “Are you in love with Nix?”
“Yes.” Zen spoke softly against her ear, keeping the conversation between them. Petra and Georgie chatted about the magical marbles and how ingenious they were, while Amos added tidbits of information when asked. “Although he doesn’t deserve her love.”
“Zen’s right, Nix deserves better.” She would make herself believe Alessa was the better woman for him. “Someone like you, someone stable, you’re who Georgie said was intended for Nix.”
“Heard my name specifically, did you?” Alessa crossed her arms over her chest.
“No, but she said enough that I know it is you. All I’ve ever wanted is for Nix to be happy.”
“So intelligent, but foolish, too.” Alessa grunted. “I don’t want Nix, never have.”
“We’ll see.”
Her friend made a face. “That unreasonable stubbornness of yours…it’ll be why you survive in Hell. When we’re all out of Hell, we’ll see who he picks.”
Madison shook her head. She wasn’t looking for a relationship. She had enough complications already. At the top of her list was a son whose powers grew exponentially daily and strange hokey things going on with her own inner demon. No sane man would undertake those obstacles.
“I’m going to catch some Zs before we hit the glen in a couple of hours.” Alessa walked out of the room.
“Let me sit down, Zen.” He pushed her onto the chair. She kept her palm squeezed tight around the soul, feeling its earthy vibration all the way to her teeth. “Petra?”
“Yeah?” She and Amos juggled six marbles between them.
Madison couldn’t watch the movement without feeling like she would puke. “I need you to stay here to protect Amos.”
Petra shot to her feet and the marbles clattered to the hardwood. “I’ll be better served in Hell helping you.”
“I asked her to watch after you, Momma.”
“I promised him I would, Madison.”
Madison shook her head. “I need you safe, Amos. If…if….” She took a deep breath and met her son’s stare. “If something goes wrong, your daddy will come after you. I cannot risk that.” Because if something went wrong, that meant she would have turned. She didn’t want Amos seeing her like that. And she didn’t know how long it would take Zen to crush her soul beneath the boots he didn’t wear. “We’re stronger together, so your exposure will be higher while I’m in Hell. I need her to watch over you and keep you safe.”
“I want her with you to keep you safe!” Amos yelled and ran from the room.
Madison sighed, knowing she was wrong for putting him through this. But with fate guiding her steps, she didn’t have a choice whether to go after Nix.
“I’m commanded to stay, right?” Sarcasm dripped from Petra’s voice.
“Yes, I command you as your Queen to stay and protect him.” Madison was bone-weary. The demon was too observant not to see her exhaustion. “You should be thanking me since Micah wants you just as bad as he does us.”
“Amos needs you to return, not me!” Petra stomped from the room.
Madison surveyed Zen.
“They’ll get over it,” he said.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to leave things like this with Amos.” She opened her hand. The triangular-shaped crystal—slightly curved inward on one end—rested in her palm. Alessa’s soul swirled green, edged with deep red. The color fit Alessa’s personality. So what’d that say about her own complicated aura?
“You should rest a little while before we head out to the glen. Talk to Amos after you rest.”
“I don’t have time to sleep, Zen. You still have to put that Soul Scroll thingy on me and I’ve got—”
Zen stopped listening to the hard-headed woman and did what he wanted. He placed his hand on her forehead, zapped her with a smidge of power, and she slumped into his arms.
Lifting her with ease, he acknowledged the Birminghams and indicated Madison with a nod. “She needed to rest. She refused, so I took her in hand.”
“You’re probably the only one brave enough to do that to her.” Zoe smiled and her thoughts drifted to him. She agreed with his actions.
“Maybe.” Zen shrugged. “It was for her own good. She’ll see you all in the morning. Good evening.”
Zen carried Madison up the stairs, pushed open her bedroom door with a burst of power, and folded back the blankets with the same magic. Settling her on the bed as the door shut with another mental push, he pulled the covers to her chin and considered her.
Smudges darkened the flesh beneath her eyes and she’d grown pale over the last few days. Running on adrenaline, fear and worry, she had pushed Pandora and her inner demon to the limit. The altercation with Phoenix and Micah escalated the problem.
She would either rest or one of the demonic powers would overtake her. But…he couldn’t deny she impressed him over and over again with her ability to manage the dual magical forces. Every time he expected her to fail, she surprised him by succeeding.
He’d never cheered for a human and never selected a side because his single focus had been protecting the balance. Coming out of the crystal, he’d reawakened to a world so far out of equilibrium with supernatural creatures running amok, it would take a hundred of Zennyo Ryuo to balance out the order. Being the sole survivor of his kind should give him more focus than protecting a child so powerful he suspected he’d resist putting him down if the time came. Or safeguarding a woman he came dangerously close to thinking of as family. A woman with enough fight and gusto he would proudly call his sister.
Zen shook his head and walked to the window. When Madison’s problems were solved, he’d leave, walk out the door, and wouldn’t look back. He’d check on them from time to time and make sure he didn’t need to put them down and….
She is the guardian of Pandora’s Box. I cannot leave them.
He turned to face her, sat in a chair, and retrieved Madison’s soul from his pants’ pocket. He held the crystal up and twisted it in the light. The shape was odd, reminding him of one of those family trees with all the branches. Maybe not so odd when he ruminated on the eclectic family she’d acquired.
Phoenix jumped down the rabbit hole to save her. Alessa had become like a sister to her, and as much as Petra irritated Madison, they were tight in their own way. Madison’s demonic step-daughter would kill anyone for looking at Madison or Amos wrong. Petra had already declared herself a Wescott follower regardless of which team they pitched for.
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