In the end, we waited another hour, then geared up and went to get Lua.
Ceris, Victor, Micah, Maho, Ronen, Sol, Alice, Keisha, and I popped into a dark desert. There were sand and sand dunes everywhere we looked.
“What an odd place to be,” I said under my breath.
Micah glanced at me. “Before the darkness took over, this place was ideal to look up at the sky and admire the moon and the stars.”
I stared at him. I hadn’t expected anyone to answer, much less him. Why did he keep surprising me? And the things he said? It was as if he had tailored his words to gut me.
“Anyone sensing her?” Victor’s voice was loud and clear.
I averted my eyes from Micah’s and watched the other gods.
“No,” Maho said. He turned to me. “Are you sure she’s here?”
Hating when they doubted me, I frowned. “I am.”
Ceris produced the map and handed it to me. “Check again.”
I took the map from her and unrolled it. I gasped as Lua’s symbol faded before my eyes. “It’s disappearing.”
“What do you mean?” Sol came to stand behind me and looked at the map over my shoulder, but like the others, he couldn’t see anything.
“It’s …” I counted four seconds before it disappeared completely. “It’s gone.”
As if I had hit him with my bare hands, Sol took a wide step to the side. “She’s not here anymore?”
“No …” I looked at the map again. Her symbol was nowhere to be seen. “I’m sorry.”
Ceris exhaled loudly. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault. We knew Lua hasn’t stopped for long in the same place, but we had to risk it.”
“All right,” Victor said. “There’s nothing here. Let’s go back.”
“Wait,” Keisha said. She stood atop of a sand dune about a hundred yards from us. “I see something.”
We all walked closer to her. From the top of the dune, we could see the end of the desert in the distance and the flickering lights of a small town. To the east, what looked like a dark shadow grew closer and closer to the town.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Demons,” Micah said from beside me, his voice filled with rage.
“They are going to attack that town,” Alice said. “Just like they did to my town.”
I shifted my gaze to Ceris. “Unless we stop them.”
She cut me a look that said all I needed to know. Since it wasn’t our priority, she didn’t want to go, but she wouldn’t say that out loud.
Victor nodded, his gaze on the long, dark shadow moving across the desert. “Let’s do it.”
The gods teleported us closer to the demons. We crouched behind the top of a dune and watched as the hundreds of demons marched toward the town.
“It’s now or never,” Maho said.
Hundreds against nine. It was a good thing some of us were powerful.
We stayed low and hidden by the darkness, approaching the demons from behind. When we were within reach, we attacked. By the time they recovered from our surprise attack, we had already advanced through their formation, but they still came at us from all sides. Our group spread out and met the demons with fierce determination.
I didn’t know how much time passed or how many demons I had already taken down—a dozen? Maybe even two dozen?—when I noticed I was a little farther away and surrounded. Slowly, I turned and counted eleven demons in the first line. There were more behind them, and even more coming to watch—or make sure they didn’t miss me.
I gulped. Even though I was a good fighter, I couldn’t take on half an army of demons by myself. I knew that.
No time to panic. With a growl, I raised my sword and readied myself. I spread my legs open and gripped the hilt of my sword tighter. Two demons broke from the circle and ran at me. Moving faster than I had ever moved, I slashed the throat of the first and pierced the chest of the second. I pulled my sword free and parried the claw of a third demon. Then a fourth was behind me and a fifth was advancing. Again, I didn’t overthink, I just moved. Slash, parry, dodge, duck, pierce. I got rid of two of them, but then two more came at me. One swiped its claws and I stepped back right into the claws of another one. It slashed, cutting diagonally across my shoulder blade. I clamped my mouth, swallowing a scream, and swung my sword, cutting off the demon’s arm. It roared and lunged at me like a lion, its pointy teeth bared and its remaining claws ready in a hook. I parried its attack, but then three other demons were on me. One closed its claws around my hurt shoulder, while the other grabbed my ponytail and pulled my head back. Another one slapped my arm down hard, making me lose the grip on my sword.
Panic rose in me.
The demons forced me to my knees and the armless demon let out a sound like a sick chuckle as it lifted its remaining claws to strike.
No, no, no, no.
I couldn’t die yet. I wasn’t ready. I had to help Micah and Victor and Ceris win the war. I needed to make sure the Soul Oath was finished the right way.
I jerked against the demons’ hold and tried reaching into my boots, where I had stashed daggers.
With a loud roar, the demon let his arm fall. I closed my eyes.
But the claw never came. Instead, the demon grunted and was knocked to the side. I snapped my eyes open. A black bolt flew over my head, hitting the demon holding my shoulders. The bolt exploded in its face and it stumbled back before falling over other demons. Three more quick black bolts followed, getting rid of most of the demons around me.
Micah.
I wanted to look at him, to tell him thanks, but instead, I crawled to my sword. A demon stepped on it as my hand closed around the hilt. With a wicked, sharp-toothed grin, the demon kicked high, hitting my chin and sending me flying backward. My vision blackened and my head spun. I hit the sandy ground, right in the middle of more demons.
The demons stood over me, ready to finish me again. Their sharp claws and pointed teeth bared, closing in on me.
“Hang on,” Keisha yelled somewhere to my side.
I lifted my head enough to see her dashing through a throng of demons, coming at me. From the other side, the black bolts resumed, knocking the demons down.
In the chaos of the battle, Micah and Keisha didn’t see each other.
“Stop,” I tried yelling, but my throat hurt, and my voice was barely above a whisper. “Keisha, stop!”
It was like watching in slow motion. Keisha stood beside me, a huge demon in front of her. One of Micah’s bolts sailed through the air and hit the same demon square in the back. The demon fell to the side, and the next bolt hit Keisha.
Her eyes widened as she looked down at the hole in her chest.
“Oh, gods,” I heard Micah’s voice from afar.
Keisha’s limp body fell beside me.
“Keisha!” I screamed, trying to get to her, but there were still demons everywhere.
Not thinking, only feeling immense rage and despair, I threw my hands out and the white light flashed from them, spreading around me in a wide circle, taking out every demon nearby.
I had to roll out from under a gross, heavy body to reach her. But by then, she was already gone.
A lump rose in my throat. I touched her shoulder. “Keisha?”
She had fallen over a dead demon. Her head lolled back and her eyes were open, staring at nothing. Her arms and legs were unnaturally bent.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. A sob rippled through me.
“By the Everlast,” Victor said.
I blinked and, through the unshed tears, saw that they were all standing to my right, staring at Keisha and me. Victor, Ceris, Maho, Sol, Ronen, Alice, and Micah.
Micah. Who had killed her.
His jaw ticked and the muscles in his neck tense. He shifted his gaze to me, his dark eyes shining with grief. “I’m … I’m so sorry.”
17
Micah
I still couldn’t believe what I had done.
Gods, I had killed Keisha.
“What are we going to do with her?” I asked in a voice too small, too weak to be mine.
“We should take her with us and give her a proper burial,” Levi suggested. “Like I wish we could have done for Morgan.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak again.
Levi picked her mangled body up and teleported back to NYC. There, he used magic to dig a grave in a small patch of dead grass. A knot formed in my chest as he lowered her body into the hole and filled it with dirt again.
“We should come back later with the others to finish the rites,” Maho said.
They started walking back to the apartment, but I stood there, staring at the improvised grave.
Levi turned back. His hand rested on my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
I shook my head. “Not more than I am,” I grunted. “I can’t believe … I can’t believe I did this.”
“It was an accident.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I killed her.”
Levi scoffed. “You sound like Nadine talking about Morgan.”
I turned around and glared at him. “That was different. Morgan wasn’t himself. He had to be stopped. Nadine did the right thing.” I glanced at the grave again. “Keisha was … she didn’t deserve to die.”
Levi squeezed my shoulder. “I don’t know what to say other than it’s okay to feel frustrated and mad, and it’s okay to mourn her.”
Frustrated and mad didn’t even begin to cover what I was feeling. One more screwup. A huge one at that.
Levi and Maho left, but I stayed outside for a long time.
I wasn’t ready to go inside. I wasn’t ready to face Nadine.
But I couldn’t run from her forever.
Slowly, I made my way to the apartment.
As expected, everyone was in the living room, and Nadine was seated on the couch, her body looking as limp as Keisha’s.
As soon as she saw me, she straightened and her stare could drill a hole in my forehead.
“You killed her,” Nadine whispered. The hatred in her eyes, the disappointment. That hurt more than the Black Thorn piercing my heart. More than the poisonous web spreading across my chest.
“You know I didn’t mean to,” I said. “I would never do that.”
Ceris stepped forward and faced me, her eyes hard, cruel. “I’m not so sure.”
I flinched as if she had hit me. “Excuse me?”
“First, you almost get Victor hurt. Then, you change our scouts’ orders. And now you get one of ours killed? I’m sorry, Mitrus, but since you came back from Nasya’s island, you’ve been elusive. I’m not sure we can trust you anymore.”
I looked from her to Levi to Nadine. They had the same wariness in their eyes, the same distrust as Ceris. So did Maho, Sol, Ronen, and Alice.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Do I look like I’m not serious?” Ceris asked. No, she didn’t.
Ironic how the goddess that screwed us over a few months ago now was the one accusing me of screwing them over.
The worst part was I didn’t know anymore. I didn’t want to hurt them, but when an opportunity came, I couldn’t think of not doing what the Death Lords asked me to. As much as it angered me to do their bidding, to bow down to them, I couldn’t see another solution. I had to let Nadine go, but I couldn’t. Even if she hated me, even if she never wanted to see me again, I couldn’t let her die.
However, this time it had nothing to do with the Death Lords and their elusive deal. This time, I had made a big mistake.
Levi walked to his soulmate’s side and caught her hand in his. “Ceris, you’re exaggerating.”
“Am I?” she snapped.
“Yes, you are,” Levi said. “What happened today … it was an accident. A terrible accident. It wasn’t Mitrus’s fault. You know that.”
“What about the rest?”
“Misunderstandings.” Levi looked at me, his bluish-green eyes serious. “I trust Mitrus. He wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize everything we have worked for.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, accidents happen and today we witnessed a big one.”
Ceris pulled her hand free of Levi’s grasp and took a step back as if it hurt to touch him.
I looked at Nadine. “I’m so sorry.”
A tear rolled down Nadine’s cheek. Without another word, she stood and marched to her bedroom. Ceris followed her, but instead, she went to her room at the end of the hall.
“Give them time,” Levi said. “They will understand.”
Would they? Would they not only understand but also forgive me?
I shook my head. Not even I could forgive myself, so why should they?
I turned around and headed to the door.
“Where are you going?” Maho asked.
“I … I need fresh air,” I said before leaving the apartment.
I had already drunk an entire whiskey bottle when I summoned Morgan to my lair.
“I killed Keisha,” I said as soon as he shimmered into existence in front of me. Morgan stared at me with wide eyes and an open mouth. I got another bottle from the bar, opened it, and downed half of it in one gulp. “It was an accident, but I killed her nonetheless.”
Morgan finally closed his mouth and sat on one of the chaise lounges. “What happened, my lord?”
I told him all about our day. Finding Lua’s symbol, going to the desert, not finding Lua there, but seeing demons preparing to attack. Nadine getting swarmed by demons and losing, my desperation to get to her and help her, and not seeing Keisha.
Screaming, I threw the bottle at the wall. Shards of glass and liquid flew everywhere.
Morgan gasped.
Slowly, I backed away from the mess and plopped down on the other chaise lounge. With a wave of my hand, the broken glass and spilled liquid were gone. It was as if it had never happened.
“I can sense her here in the underworld,” I said. “She’s confused and upset.” Of course she was upset. Her ally had killed her. I would be raging, wreaking havoc, breaking everything, and punching everyone.
I felt so weak.
God of the dead and death and underworld, my ass. Right now, I was fucked-up Micah who didn’t know what to do next.
Breaking the silence, Morgan asked in a careful tone, “What about Nadine, my lord?”
“She hates my guts right now, as she should. Maybe now she’ll stay away from me for good.”
Morgan tsked. “I doubted she hates you, my lord. She knows it was an accident.”
I was so fucking tired of talking about this subject, of hearing from Levi and Morgan that it had been an accident. It didn’t change the fact that I had killed a hero. This shit wasn’t a game. Killing friends wasn’t something I could just push aside.
“She used magic again today.”
Morgan gaped at me. “Really?”
“Yeah. After I … I killed Keisha. I think Nadine entered some kind of rage mode or something, and she just blasted out. All the demons in a twenty-yard radius collapsed. Despite the circumstances, it was incredible.”
“You know, my lord, I’ve been thinking a lot about what is happening to Nadine.” He stood and started pacing. “I remembered reading about a legend of a group of ladies who were similar to heroes. It was many years ago and I don’t remember the exact details.”
I sat up. “You read it in one of your books?”
“No. I read it when I visited a high priest in France. He had an incredible collection of books about the creed, and he told me he knew of a hidden place where several high priests from all around the world stashed sacred books for safekeeping, books that explained the history and forgotten legends of The Everlasting Circle.”
A sliver of hope ran through my veins. “Do you know where this hidden place is?”
“He didn’t want to tell me, my lord, but I can try to find out.”
“How?”
Morgan smiled. “Well, my lord, he should be somewhere around the underworld. I can ask him.”
Despite myself, I smiled too. Finally, something to look forward to.
“You weren’t gone for long,” Ceris said when I entered the apartment. She was seated on the couch, drinking a glass of wine and reading a book.
If I hadn’t seen the book was about the creed, I could have sworn Ceris was a rich housewife, reading a romance novel, as if all was normal with the world.
Levi was pacing behind the sofa, also with a book in hand, but now his eyes were on me, and I could see Maho, Sol, and Ronen in the kitchen. Though I tried not using this kind of power with her, I sensed for Nadine. I found her in her bedroom with Alice.
“I think I know what is happening to Nadine and where we can find more books, better books, that might explain it.”
Levi closed his book. “What? Where?”
“What do you think is happening to her?” Ceris asked.
“Morgan vaguely remembers of a legend about a group of ladies who were similar to heroes. We interrogated a high priest and—”
Levi raised his hand. “Wait, wait. You and Morgan interrogated a high priest? Just now? How?”
I almost rolled my eyes. “The guy is dead, okay? It was easy finding his soul in the underworld. I summoned him, and Morgan and I talked to him.” I left out the part where the high priest didn’t want to tell us anything, but when I promised to send him to the fiery pits of the underworld if he didn’t help, he finally told us everything he knew. “This high priest told us there is a secret underground room in the library at the Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai in Egypt, where high priests hid sacred books.”
“I don’t see how these two facts are connected,” Ceris said, always the fucking pessimist.
I stifled a groan. “Morgan thinks they are connected. Isn’t that enough?”
“Not really.”
This time I groaned. “Whatever. I’m going there.”
“Wait,” Levi said. “Do you even know the state of this library? Is it still standing?”
“No, but nothing a quick teleportation won’t solve. And even if it’s not standing, I can try to find something in the wreckage.”
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