by Lucy Auburn
My eyes flew open as the realm walking took me to the hallway near the battle, which was little more than ruins and dust now. I fell to my knees, hand still plastered to the symbol, and looked over my shoulder to see that someone familiar had followed me here. “Naomi.”
“Really, Selena?” She glared at me, hardness in her eyes. “You thought you’d come here alone?”
“I have to,” I said, voice weak. “It’s the only way.”
“Fuck ‘the only way.’ Don’t be stupid.” Her eyes caught on something, and a knife fell to her hands with a practiced movement. “Get ready to fight, martyr.”
I stumbled to my feet and whirled to see what she was looking at, heart pounding.
Half the building had crumbled around us. In the ruins of what remained, two figures floated several feet off the ground, swathed in power: one pale as death with grey wings, hovering in a tornado of ruin; the other an arcing flash of light and energy itself, flickering.
Flickering. Because Damen’s power was failing him, coming to its end. A loud boom rang out in the air, the thunder that followed lightning, and he fell to the ground, righting himself with a stumble that worried me. His dark hair stood on end, his form ringed in blue light, and I could read exhaustion in every line of his body.
In front of him, Beelzebub was flapping his great wings, diving in for a landing. And I knew that once he got close enough to put his hands around Damen’s neck, it would all be over.
I couldn’t let that happen. Grabbing the book in one hand, I ripped the page with the symbol out of it and stuffed it into my jacket pocket. Then I ran towards Damen, calling out his name.
He turned to me, sparks flickering at the edges of his eyes. “Selena.” He let his power leave him as I reached out to grab his shoulders, grateful to see that he was still alive. “You came back.”
“I did,” I said, looking fearfully towards the dark demigod at his back, who was landing on a piece of rubble. “Damen, watch out!”
He turned and threw a bolt of power at Beelzebub, who vaulted to his feet and hovered above the rubble just in time to avoid being struck. “Damnit.” Damen turned to me, hand on my waist, and looked deep into my eyes. “You shouldn’t be here, Selena. He’s too powerful now. I don’t know what happened, but he’s channeling energy from somewhere.”
Looking at the twisted smile on Beelzebub’s face and the tattoos criss-crossing his chest, a sinking feeling settled in my stomach. “The Underworld. I couldn’t drain energy from him because of these tattoos he has on his chest. They’re new and I don’t know when he got them. They’re the same runes as that other guy—”
“God runes,” Naomi filled in, stepping up to my other side. “I did more research once you filled me in on Mommy dearest. They link him to your mother. I think he’s drawing energy from her somehow.”
Damen spit out her name. “Persephone. I hated pretending to serve her.” He looked down into my eyes and added, “Almost as much as I hated keeping you under lock and key.”
My heart leapt. “You remember?”
He nodded, a crooked smirk twisting up his lips. “I do. Let’s catch up later, though. He’s about to attack.”
Above our heads, Beelzebub flapped his great wings, a tornado of air and rubble swirling around him. I stared and realized what Damen said was true: energy seemed to course towards him from tiny rips in the air, little pockets of space and time being disrupted.
Whether I wanted her to or not, my mother was reaching her claws out into this world and tearing it into pieces.
And I knew how to stop her. Looking back at Naomi, I told her, “I need to touch him somehow.”
She raised her brows at me. “I thought you couldn’t drain his energy.”
“Just trust me,” I said, hoping that somehow she could—and that Damen could too. “I have an idea. It’ll end all of this. I can use my Lightblood powers.”
I just hoped that I could pull it off.
Damen said, “I’m fresh out of ideas, so it sounds like a plan to me.” He glanced at Naomi. “You?”
The dark hunter studied me, her eyes seeming to look into my soul itself. And she nodded sharply. “I’ll help out. And I know just the knife to use.”
Naomi pulled out a heavy black knife with a circular end that she fit her finger through. Whipping it around, she aimed it towards a half destroyed wall behind Beelzebub and threw it. I watched as it arced across the space, wobbling near the demigod’s tornado and sinking into the wall. As it did so, a thick rope-like string spooled behind it. Naomi held the thick string in her fingers and tugged on it.
“Rope knife,” she said, in response to my expression. She looked over at Damen with a challenging expression on her face. “Now you just have to attack him enough that the tornado around him weakens. Think you can do it?”
“Oh, I can do it. First though...” Damen grabbed my waist and tugged me close before I could do anything. Those sparking eyes stared down at me, and I swallowed heavily at the expression dancing in them. “Humor me. You need a weapon you can use on him.”
“Right.”
“Also,” he added, “I want to.”
And he swept me close to swallow me whole.
41
Selena
The kiss was electric, alive—and short-lived. We had a demigod to take down, after all. I took what I could of Damen’s powers, folding him into me, then turned to face what was next.
In the corner of my eyes, I saw Naomi’s face. And I dared to take a moment to lean in and kiss her, too. Her mouth was unyielding at first, but it softened with a sigh. I let her bitter strength mellow on my tongue and bit my lower lip when she stepped back to arch an eyebrow at me.
“Great kiss. Poor timing. Let’s move.”
“Right.” I nodded sharply, looking to Damen. “Think you can get him down enough for me to take him?”
“Oh, I can.”
Wrapped in power, Damen rose from the ground by a few inches as he threw his hand up and summoned lightning from the sky. I shaded my eyes from the powerful light as blue-white energy coursed down and rained on Beelzebub’s head. The dark demigod deflected one of the blows, then a second, but his power was depleted by it. The third hit with a thundering crash, and he fell towards the ground, cushioned by a mere sliver of his power.
Naomi said, “Take the end of the string, and when I let go, you’ll be propelled forward. Good luck.”
I nodded, took a deep breath, and grabbed the thick string. It felt dense and heavy as a rope in my hands. Naomi gave me one last piercing look and let go of her end.
The rope whipped forward, and I almost dropped it. But I grit my teeth and held on at the last second, breath knocked out of me as I was propelled through the air over the disastrous ruins beneath me. As Beelzebub regained some of his altitude and flew up into the air with a smirk on his face, I swung towards him with a yell.
I almost worried that I wouldn’t hit him, but I shouldn’t have—he reached out with a great pale arm and snatched me from the air, swinging me over his shoulder like a bag of rocks. All the air was forced out of me at once by the impact, and I fought to breathe.
“So, you’ve finally decided to give yourself over to me,” he crowed, his hand moving up and down on my leg in a nausea-inducing way. “I knew that you would come around.”
I heard a familiar voice then, and glanced up to see that on the other side of the ruins, Petyr had arrived with Elah, Leon, and Maggie. The spell to imprison Beelzebub had to be ready if they were here. Elah was yelling my name, a frantic look on his face. I wished that I could comfort him, but this next part I had to do on my own.
Beelzebub was going on about things, describing how he would kill everyone I cared about and take me to the Underworld for our wedding. I ignored him, reaching into my jacket pocket and slipping out the piece of paper from the book. My hands shook a little as I pulled it out; from nerves or adrenaline, I didn’t know.
What I was about to do was either very clever or very stupid. Li
kely both. Unfolding the paper, I smacked it down onto Beelzebub’s back with my hand on the symbol, closing my eyes and preparing the powers I felt growing inside me day by day.
I’d already decided that I would take him to the throne room and quickly realm walk back to Earth. If I was the Key, then it would work, and prove everything. And if I wasn’t, and it didn’t work—well, maybe I could convince the demigod to take me and leave everyone I cared about alone. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
As I was building the image of the throne room in my mind and preparing to take him there, I heard something whip through the air. I opened my eyes just in time to see a familiar sword tip end over end towards us and pierce the demigod’s back. Beelzebub screamed as Elah’s blade tore him open, dropping me from his arms all at once.
The paper in my palm fluttered to the ground as I fell to the rubble beneath me, my fall cushioned by the warmth of the protection amulet around my neck. For a moment I hovered above the ground, cradled by magic. At the last moment the gem cracked, overwhelmed by all it had done for me, and turned black; I fell the last few feet, gasping in pain as my palm hit a sharp piece of glass and sliced open.
Dimly, I heard Maggie called my name, and saw her standing on a solid piece of the building at least a dozen feet away. I was far down in the pit of rubble, though, and too far from her to hear what she said or crawl towards her. Pushing myself up, I cradled my hand to my chest and looked around for the piece of paper. A cry of dismay passed through my lips when I saw it was torn in half and covered in dust. It would be useless to me now, but I still picked up the pieces with my uninjured hand and shoved them in my pocket.
Not far from me, Beelzebub had fallen in his own pit of rubble. He struggled to his feet, then grabbed the hilt of Elah’s sword and pulled it from his chest. His wounds began to heal—slowly. He was beginning to weaken, maybe even enough that Maggie’s spell might be able to imprison him. A little corner of my chest sparked with a tiny flame of hope.
“Selena!”
I whipped around at the sound of her voice: Maggie. She had crawled down into the rubble and was trying to make her way towards me. Fear shot through me, and I glanced back to make sure Beelzebub hadn’t seen her yet; I couldn’t let him attack her. I skidded down the rubble towards her, hissing under my breath, “You shouldn’t be here!”
“I’m getting you out of this,” she said, her voice carrying a mother’s confidence despite the threat we were facing. “You need to go, Selena. You tried to fight him. Enough is enough.”
Past her shoulder, I saw that Elah was mounting Fira, who was no doubt prepared to carry him towards Beelzebub even over the pile of rubble and ruins. Leon’s beast leapt up onto her hindquarters, and she only shuddered for a moment, staying steady.
On the other side of the destroyed battlefield, Naomi had knives ready in both her hands, and as I watched she threw one at the demigod’s chest and prevented his wound from closing. Damen’s eyes glowed as he gathered his power, no doubt ready to channel enough lightning to destroy himself taking down the demon’s son.
Darkness shadowed all their faces; the light of the moon and the building’s few generator-powered lamps was barely enough to see by. The shadows were closing in, ready to destroy them.
I looked at Maggie and shook my head, backing away from her outstretched hands even as she called my name. “I have to do this,” I said. “I have to face him, and finish what I started.”
I felt a stab in my heart from the pain on her face as she flicked her eyes to Beelzebub and back to me, no doubt trying to figure out if she could risk climbing the pile of rubble to grab me even if it meant getting his attention. It was a relief when Petyr met my eyes and nodded, reaching out towards Maggie and beckoning her close. But it was hard to turn my back on her, and I felt her gaze prick between my shoulder blades as I faced the demigod.
Blood pooled in the palm of my injured hand. My calves burned as I climbed the rubble. I heard a whinny behind me, and knew Fira was carrying Elah close to the center of things, to no doubt use up every bit of his lingering powers trying to end this. I had to do it myself, I knew, so I yelled out, “Beelzebub!” He turned to face me, a wicked smile curving his lips; his chest wounds were almost healed. “Take me. I’ll go with you willingly.”
I shut out the sounds of Maggie’s cry of dismay, the shout of Elah’s battle cry, the frantic look on Naomi’s face as she drew another knife. Reaching out with my uninjured hand, I let him take me and pull me towards him with his powers, then wrap me in his wings.
He said, “You’re going to help us change the world.”
“I know.” Blood dripped from my palm as I reached up to put my injured hand on his chest, folding my fingers in a last desperate attempt to do what needed to be done. The bloodstain on his skin looked close enough to what I needed; it would have to do. “But I have plans of my own.”
I needed a better plan, I realized. A better place to put him. So when I closed my eyes this time, I didn’t imagine my mother’s throne room. I imagined the Underworld, creating it in my head, with a place for the king I’d never met.
Staring up into Beelzebub’s dark gaze, I pulled up all the power within me and saw darkness dance across my vision.
In one moment, we were standing on a pile of rubble, the distant voices of people I loved and cared about surrounding me as they tried desperately to get to me in time to pull me from his hateful arms.
The next moment, we were surrounded by fire in the darkness. I yelped as the flames licked towards me, then calmed down when I realized they were contained to a deeply cut pit in the floor. We were standing in the middle of what looked very similar to Persephone’s throne room, but was five times the size and surrounded by a mote of fire.
In the middle of the room was a throne, and sitting on that throne was a god who could only be Hades.
Beelzebub pulled back from me, a cruel twist on his lips. “Where are we?” His voice was ruin and damnation; even now, as triumph filled me, I was afraid of what he might do to me. “What did you do, you stupid bitch?”
I stumbled away from him, wincing back from the fire and staring frantically towards the throne. I’d thought only this far ahead; now that I was here, and without any easy way to make the symbol again, I wasn’t sure what I would do. Beelzebub could kill me here just as easily as anywhere, I realized with a sickening wave of fear.
“Hades!” I screamed his name, running towards the throne even as Beelzebub roared his rage. “Hades! I’ve brought you your wife’s follower, your—your wayward son.”
I didn’t know what I expected; the figure on the throne was as still as marble. He looked almost like a Greek sculptor had carved him out of stone, then painted him in streaks of brown and black.
For a moment nothing happened, the sound of my desperate voice echoing around us. I felt the tug of Beelzebub’s powers on me and had the terrible feeling that he was about to pull me into the fire pit and have me burned to death.
“Hades!”
The god turned, and his eyes were glowing diamonds. He stood and stepped down from his throne, speaking in a voice that was as big as a herd of elephants, as strong as the roar of thunder. “Beelzebub.” He took another step forward, raising his hand, and the finger of his son’s power around my ankles released me all at once. “My son. Indeed, it is you.”
“Father.” The voice of the demigod was as small as a mouse. “I didn’t expect—it’s you.”
I scrambled away from him, keeping one eye on each of them as they faced each other. But even so, I couldn’t evade Hades’ notice. He turned to look at me as he said, “And who has brought my son to me?”
“I—” Beneath the gaze of those glowing eyes, words failed me. There could be no denying this god’s divinity, that was for certain. So I tried, “I’m just a fae, returning him from Earth.”
“No simple fae can realm walk to my kingdom.” Hades looked back at his son, who was cowering down to his knees, wings banked and c
urved to the ground. “Tell me, my son, who is this woman who brought you close to my hand once more?”
The demigod’s hateful eyes flicked over to me and away, and my heart sank, because I knew what he was about to tell his father. “She’s Persephone’s daughter, father.” Hades’ steps paused at that, but Beelzebub wasn’t done yet. “She is the Key. I was going to bring her to you so that you could leave this wretched place.”
My stomach turned as the god looked over at me, his eyes like two silver moons in his impossibly noble face. “The Key. I’ve been looking for you.”
“I brought her here!” Beelzebub’s voice grew frantic as he tried to ingratiate himself to Hades. “I knew that you were—”
“Hush.” The god’s command was simple, paired with a small flourish of his hand, but it was all it took to abruptly shut Beelzebub’s mouth. He looked like he was trying to speak, but his lips were glued together. My stomach churned at such power. The last thing I wanted was for Hades to do the same thing to me.
“Please.” My voice came out raspy and dry. “I brought your son back to you. Now I just want to go home.”
“Home?” The god tilted his head; this close, I could feel his divinity shine down on me, and it was nothing like Persephone at all. He felt ancient, glorious, and all-powerful; I cringed back from him, barely resisting the urge to fall to my knees and press my forehead to the floor in submissive reverence. “If you mean Earth, which you stink of, I cannot send you back there. It’s much too dangerous to have something like you walk the mortal realm.” He reached out a hand and placed it on the top of my head, and I felt his power like an anvil falling over me. “No, not Earth. I will send you somewhere else.”
“And your son?”
“Will stay here with me,” he said, the words a proclamation. “Forever. Now—time to go, little key. There will be no fulfillment of any prophecies on my watch.”
Then he pushed against me, his hand seeming to go through me almost, and suddenly I wasn’t in the Underworld anymore. For a moment, I wasn’t anywhere at all, until I felt the familiar darkness of the Shadow Realm rush past me.