Fury

by Elizabeth Cole

  I slid the box back to me and he locked it and slipped it back into the drawer.

  “What next?”

  “Did Tasha tell you what to expect tomorrow?”

  “She’s got her goop ready to go to call him where we want him. You’re going to secure him to the room and then Fitz is going to separate your father’s soul from the demon. You’re going to banish the demon, put your father’s soul in a box and Joshua is taking the box to an undisclosed part of the river and then, we celebrate.”

  Salem nodded, “And most important, you get to go home the day after.”

  “And then come back.” I added, not wanting him to forget that part.

  “If it’s still what you want.” He said, his voice sounding warry but hopeful.

  There was no hesitation in my answering, “It is.”

  “Then you will come back.”

  “Promise?”

  “You have my word, Nyx.”

  Much like the first time, the weight of his word settled over me and I relaxed into the comfort of it.

  “So, what’s next?”

  “That was it. I was thinking of going on a hunt for some ice cream though, if you’re up for it.”

  “I could never say no to ice cream.”

  Charon was sitting in the kitchen when we walked in, a cup of tea placed in front of him.

  “Sir? Is there something you needed?” He asked, spotting Salem and I as we walked in.

  “I’ve got it, Charon. You’re off the clock.” Salem said, pulling two bowls from a cupboard and then moving to the freezer.

  “A good chief of staff is never off the clock, sir.” He said, but didn’t press the issue. I noticed the book he was reading next to the cup of tea and smiled.

  “I recognize your book.”

  Charon’s ears pinked up as he closed the history book and smiled, “A simple past time, reading. But I like the histories one finds in the book’s mortals call histories. Did you know I am a ferryman for the dead?”

  I nodded, “People put tokens on the eyes of the dead to pay you. You must be rolling in it.”

  Charon gave a soft chuckle, “Even if the money transferred over from one world to the next, it would go to Salem. I have no dealings with the souls.”

  “I wonder how your title got so skewed.”

  “The same way it always does. Myths and legends seem to hold a grain of truth which has been folded into the mystical world storytellers come up with. It’s frivolous, but enjoyable, to read.”

  “One of the greatest storytellers I’ve heard of said imagination is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we’ve never shared. I agree with her and think reading, even if the story is pure fiction, furthers our minds in ways work never will.”

  “Well said, miss.”

  “Nyx,” Salem called, “Chocolate or vanilla?”

  “A scoop of each if it’s okay.”

  Salem nodded and I turned back to Charon. “Do you read often?”

  “In my down time. That or I draw. Joshua likes his board games and liked his video games up until his console broke. Tasha and Jane prefer their books and Salem has an unnatural love for the television.”

  “Charon doesn’t like noise.”

  “I don’t like loud. How do you know when you’re needed if you can’t hear over the shouts of others?”

  “Wait, you guys have a TV?” I asked, wondering how I had missed it in my explorations.

  “Oh, we have another one who likes the noise.” Charon said, rolling his eyes but he snuck a wink at me

  “I don’t know if I’m more offended it surprises you, or more surprised you didn’t find it.” Salem said, putting the ice cream back in the freezer and picking up the bowls. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

  “Good night, Charon.”

  “Good night, Miss. Sir.” He nodded to us as we exited the kitchen and Salem handed me my bowl.

  “Charon likes you.” Salem said, as we walked down the main hall. “Thinks you’re sharp witted and kind.”

  “Glad to know I’ve fooled him.”

  Salem’s lips tipped up and he shook his head. “I think I should also pass along that Jane, Tasha and Joshua have all said things along the same lines.”

  “Then I’m glad to know I’ve fooled you all.”

  “I didn’t say anything about me, Nyx. That’s just getting presumptuous.”

  “Please. You so like me. I’m the best.”

  “I’d say tolerate.”

  I rolled my eyes, “Well I don’t like you either then Mr. High and Mighty.”

  “Liar.”

  It was safe to say Salem only watched one type of movie. Action thrillers. The Usual Suspects, Taken, The Departed and the Bourne trilogy were all here and accounted for. I thought he was in desperate need of some comedies, but he’d found his niche.

  “Have you watched all of these?”

  “More than once. I like movies.”

  “Obviously. There are over two hundred movies here.”

  He shrugged, “You pick. I like them all.”

  I picked Casino Royale and handed it to him. There were six chairs all spaced apart in front of a white wall. I traded Salem the movie for the ice cream bowl and sat down as the wall lit up blue. Salem sat down in the chair next to mine as the movie started and I handed him his ice cream.

  James Bond was going up against Vesper Lynd in a verbal sparring match when I said, “I always wanted to do that.”

  “Go toe to toe in a battle of wits?”

  I smiled and shook my head, “No. Be a spy. Be able to walk into a room and read it. Know exactly who you were dealing with. See who was a threat and who was an ally.”

  “They make it look glamorous, but I can tell you being able to do that isn’t as fun as it sounds.”

  “Oh, that’s right. I’m talking to a human lie detector.”

  “Nobody says what they mean. You seem to be an exception to that rule.”

  “You say that so much, I’m starting to think you prefer lies.”

  “It’s what I’m used to, but no. I prefer your truths.”

  Chapter 7

  Ididn’t get to the end of the movie. The last thing I remembered was Bond’s Aston Martin flipping when he swerved to avoid Vesper lying in the road. I woke up the next morning in my bed to a soft knock at my door.

  “Nyx?” Jane’s voice came through before she started knocking again.

  “Come in, Jane.”

  The door opened and Jane ran to the bed as I sat up.

  “Nyx! Wake up, wake up!”

  “All right, Jane.” I yawned, rubbing an eye as she pulled herself up on my bed. “I’m awake.”

  “Can I take Fitz down to lunch while you get dressed?”

  “Lunch?”

  Jane grinned, “You missed breakfast. Salem said we should let you sleep.”

  “I was tired.”

  “I got up last night for some water. Salem was carrying you to bed.”

  Her words got all of my attention and I looked at the mischievous glint in Jane’s eyes.

  “I was watching a movie with Salem and fell asleep, Jane.”

  Her grin grew, “You had your arms around his neck, Nyx. Like you read about in books.” She paused briefly before she asked, “Did you kiss him?”

  “Jane!”

  Her cheeks pinked and she slid off the bed and picked up Fitz from under the lamp. “Can I take him?”

  I shook my head at how quick she bounced from one subject to another and said, “Sure. I’ll be down in a bit.”

  “Thanks, Nyx!”

  Jane hurried out of the room and after her revelation it was safe to say I was awake. As I got ready, I realized he could have just conjured a door. Why carry me all the way upstairs? Why let me sleep in? There were always questions surrounding Salem it seemed, and there was also more to him than I originally thought.

  The day went by without incident. I hung out with Joshua and Jane at lunch and Joshua
and I slipped into easy conversation. I didn’t know if I had expected more resistance from him, but he seemed to push all the malice from our initial time together aside.

  Charon sent the staff home after dinner so Tasha and I volunteered to do dishes. Afterwards, we all seemed to be playing the waiting game and by the time I was headed to Jane’s room my skin was crawling with anticipation of tonight’s events.

  Jane and I finished the book and I tucked her into bed before joining Salem, Tasha and Joshua in Salem’s study. As soon as I walked in, Joshua locked the door behind me. Fitz was curled around my arm, the familiar buzz of his excitement emanating from his body.

  “You’re all ready?” Salem asked and everyone nodded in the affirmative before he picked up a book off his desk and turned to me. “As soon as he gets here. I can’t hold him forever.”

  “I know.”

  Salem began reading from the book and we all came to stand around the symbol Tasha had drawn on the floor using the paste she’d made.

  The paste began to glow and then it lifted from the floor, stretching and molding into a human form. Salem spoke faster, the words hanging on the edge of each other until finally a man stood in the center of the four of us.

  Salem shut the book just as chains sprouted from the floor, circling the demon’s ankles and forearms, leaving his wrists bare. I stepped forward just as Abaddon began speaking.

  “Salem, how kind of you to extend me an invitation to this party.”

  “Now, Nyx.” Salem said, his voice sounding strained.

  I lifted my arm up and Fitz stretched to Abaddon’s wrist.

  “What’s this?” Abaddon said, “Going to try and poison me?”

  Fitz sunk his teeth into Abaddon and he hissed from the pain before he relaxed and he smiled. His teeth were chipped and crooked, making his average face terrifying. I’d seen the painting of Salem’s dad and the demon wore his face, but it was different. Sickening and twisted in a way you couldn’t see but you could feel it.

  “Nyx is a Fury,” Joshua stated, “The snake is her vessel and it’s taking what you stole from Salem.”

  Abaddon’s smile faltered and the chains clinked as he tried to pull away from Fitz and me. Salem tightened the chains, keeping Abaddon in place as Fitz continued to drain the magic Abaddon had acquired.

  “Stop this!” He snarled, and his voice changed with those two worlds. It sounded deeper, less like the demon and more like a man. “I am your father. I have every right to see the goings on in my house!”

  “You aren’t my father.” Salem said, his tone low.

  “They will kill me, Salem.” The demon said, his voice pleading, but Salem didn’t buy it.

  “Don’t. You should have died when your time came and passed the responsibility on. You shouldn’t have made a deal with a demon. There isn’t enough of my father left in what you’ve become.”

  Abaddon sank to his knees, his features beginning to flake away but Fitz simply uncurled more of himself from my arm and kept going. I watched as the man before me turned into something less than. The skin flaking and cracking, exposing a glow through lying under the surface. His eyes seemed to sink further into his face, his teeth straightening.

  It was working. What was left of Salem’s father was being ripped from him, leaving nothing but the demon in its place. Slowly, the cracks began to fit themselves back together and we were left with a different man than had originally appeared.

  “No!” He muttered, but the chains tightened around him as Fitz pulled his fangs from the demon’s wrist. I stepped back immediately and Salem stepped forward.

  “You are nothing but demon now.” Salem said, picking up the dagger off the desk and plunging it into the demon’s chest.

  “The Enlightened will find a way,” Abaddon choked out, looking down at the dagger that was now glowing a soft lilac. “They will—”

  His body folded in on itself, imploding on the spot. The dagger fell to the ground and the glow ceased immediately upon impact.

  Salem came for Fitz immediately, holding his hand over him like I’d seen Callie do a hundred times before. This time it wasn’t a green soul that came out of him, it was an inky blackness. Salem directed it into the box we’d worked on last night and as soon as the last of the soul was in he slammed the lid shut, locked it and handed it to Joshua.

  “Do not stop for anything.” He said, before he flung the small key into the fire behind him.

  “Of course. Ready, Tasha?”

  “Yeah. I wrote down the spell earlier. We can leave now.”

  Salem nodded and the two of them left just as my body began to tremble. It might not have been a normal soul, but the result was the same.

  Fitz made his way up my arm and into my shirt, falling asleep after a job well done.

  “Smart serpent.” Salem said, using the same words he’d spoken the first time Fitz had done that.

  “It’s warm,” I shrugged, “probably soft.”

  “I have no doubt.”

  “I don’t suppose you’re going to let me go out and smoke?” I said, holding up a shaking hand.

  “How about a drink instead?” He asked, heading over to the mini bar set up in the corner of the room.

  “Either way. Just saying though, the cigarettes tend to work faster. A vice is a vice and all that.”

  “They smell worse.”

  “Touché. I just didn’t want to be drunk on my last night here.”

  He stopped and looked back at me. “Have you changed your mind about coming back?”

  “No.”

  “Then this isn’t your last night here.”

  I narrowed my eyes, “Don’t fight me with logic.”

  “It’s the only way to win.”

  He poured two glasses and a door appeared next to him.

  “Come on,” he said, handing me one of the glasses before opening the door.

  I followed him through and found myself in a room I hadn’t been in before. It was decorated in deep greens and rich browns. Leather couches, a pool table and a poker table filling the space. It smelled like musk, cigar smoke and dust.

  “What room is this?” I asked, taking my first sip of the drink he’d poured and appreciating the fact he’d chosen something strong.

  “My father’s office. I thought it fitting I had a drink here now that he’s finally gone. Since you need one, or several, I figured you could join me.”

  “That’s a little twisted, Salem.”

  “It is.” He agreed, before flopping down on the couch and letting out an audible sigh.

  I sat across from him on the other couch and looked around. There were no other doors aside from the one we’d come from.

  “Did you close it off?”

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of the reminder of what he’d done when selfishness pushed him to make the wrong decision. He put the entire Underworld at risk with his deal. By the time I’d realized what was going on, he’d bonded with the demon too much. He thought it was about me not wanting to surrender my birth right.”

  “He didn’t realize his son was nothing like him?”

  He froze, the drink stopping at his lips as his eyes met mine, “Why do you say that?”

  “I read the journals in the library. He made decisions based on what he wanted, not what the Underworld needed. You’ve sacrificed your wants for the job. You’re probably the least selfish person I’ve ever known.”

  “What about you?”

  I took another sip and then smiled, “I’m terribly selfish.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is, unfortunately. I’m also prone to self-pity and am too curious for my own good.”

  The corners of his mouth tipped up as he said, “The last one’s true. But if you were selfish you wouldn’t have done this tonight.”

  “I could have agreed for the sole purpose of wanting to go home.”

  “If that was the case you wouldn’t have asked to come
back. You would have let me kill Fitz the first day and then I wouldn’t have had a need for you.”

  “And then I would have got back to a life as a Watcher. Raising girls to do what I do is the last thing I want. If I hadn’t been born what I am, I wouldn’t even be taking souls for the Oracles.”

  “Why do it then?”

  “Fitz would be killed. Callie and Iris would be punished if I acted out, not to mention our Watcher would be relieved of her new charges.”

  “Those all sound like selfless reasons.”

  “Maybe, but it doesn’t stop me from wishing for a way out. I almost left once, but Iris caught me sneaking out and she started to cry. We’d heard what happens when a Fury doesn’t behave and the terror in her eyes got me to stay.”

  I drained the contents in my glass and appreciated the burn as the alcohol settled in my stomach.

  “You’re not very good at making a case for your selfishness.”

  “What did I say about fighting me with logic?”

  “Sorry,” he smirked, standing and exchanging my empty glass for his half full one before walking through the door and coming back with the decanter.

  “No, you’re not.”

  He shrugged, poured himself another drink and sat back down, “I told you about my world a few nights ago. Tell me about yours.”

  “Mine is dull in comparison.” I said, happy for the subject change.

  “I think I’ll manage to keep my eyes open.”

  “Hey, I didn’t fall asleep because you were boring me. The adrenaline of being chased down by fae and having to stitch you up drained me.”

  “I know. I was teasing you.”

  I rolled my eyes and asked, “What do you want to know?”

  “Just everything.”

  Him repeating my words back to me had me smiling and I nodded, starting with the first things in my life I could remember and went from there.

  I told him about growing up at Ms. Ivy’s, about some of the trouble Callie, Iris and I had gotten into as kids. I told him about the two of them, their likes and dislikes, their personalities and how the three of us always seemed to fit together. He was interested in high school, particularly when I told him I had been on the dance team with Iris instead of the debate team with Callie. But overall, he said little and drank even less. I’d finished two more drinks by the time he’d finished the one he’d switched out.