Teleportation. Lucky bastard.
Yael’s phone rang. Glancing down at the screen, he cursed, then answered. “Hi, Dora. How are you?”
“My granddaughter is in the goddamned Tower of Tortures and you dare ask how I am?”
“Not well, I assume?”
She screeched.
He held the phone away and rubbed his ear. “Do you have any Siren ancestry in your family tree?”
“You were meant to look after her! You were meant to prevent Lucifer from taking her! And guess what happened? Lucifer took her!”
“He teleported her right in front of me. There was nothing I could do.” At least, that’s what he kept telling himself, because he couldn’t live with himself if there’d been something he could have done to prevent her kidnapping.
He had to get her back.
He simply had to.
“She is a conduit of immense potential. Do you know what he could do with her?”
“Bad things,” he guessed.
“Very bad things. You idiot!”
“We’re working on getting her back.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get someone onto it.”
Anger scorched through him at her dismissal. “I won’t rest until I get Rowan back. And we’re getting help right now.”
“Oh, and who is on the case?”
“I thought you knew everything.”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
“Trick.”
“You’re sending Trick after my granddaughter?”
“He has changed a little since you last saw him, but no. Trick is getting hold of someone who can get your granddaughter out of the Tower.”
“How do you know it will work?”
“Because they’ve done it before.”
*
Tension built in the room until it became all but unbearable, then with a pop and the scent of ozone, two figures appeared in the library.
Hades and a beautiful Japanese woman.
Trick appeared a second later.
Yael had never met the god before, but he’d seen images. Tall, with a partially shaved head and long black hair, yellow eyes, and an expression that made a resting bitch face look like a fucking smile, Hades was not an entity to mess with.
“You want Asha to break someone out of the Tower of Tortures again?” The god’s voice boomed through the room, and they all shuffled a little on their feet. Even Dru, who grew up in Hell.
“If she could—” Yael began.
“Absolutely fucking not. Lucifer is already on high alert after Satan fucked with him. Asha could be walking into a trap.”
“I can speak for myself, you know,” the woman said. Her long dark hair was tied back in a bun, and she wore a blue cheongsam. Her almond-shaped eyes glimmered with amusement.
“Yes, but you’re crazy enough to say yes.” Hades glared at her.
She turned to them and shrugged. “He’s right.”
“See?” Hades growled, as if vindicated.
“I like collecting favors,” Asha added.
“You mean you like hoarding them.”
Yael and the others watched them like this was a tennis match, heads turning between the two.
Asha’s hand dug into a bag she had slung over her shoulder. “Hoarding, collecting, it’s all a matter of opinion.”
“You got away with it last time because he didn’t know that Trick and Seraphina were there.” Hades growled. “He will realize the human is missing.”
“My illusion magic has grown exponentially recently,” Asha said. “I should be able to hide that she’s gone for a little while. At least until we’re out.”
Hades looked ready to protest further, when Raze murmured, “Rowan is a conduit.”
Hades’ head snapped toward the dark-skinned angel. “What kind of conduit?”
“A true conduit.”
The god rocked back on his heels and whistled. “That’s different.”
“How so?” Dru asked.
“True conduits are descended from gods,” Hades replied. Yael was caught off balance: he didn’t think the god would bother with something so trivial as an explanation. “Primordial gods. Whoever uses her can tap into the energy of the universe. I can’t let Lucifer keep her.”
“She is not a thing to be kept,” Yael ground out.
“Semantics.” Hades waved a hand dismissively. “It would create an uneven power balance, and that can’t be allowed.”
“So, you’ll do it?” Yael asked Asha.
“Yes. I need to sort out a few spells, but I’ll do it. You’ll owe me, and so will the conduit.”
“Two favors?” Yael demanded.
“Two.”
He knew he shouldn’t decide for Rowan without her consent, but her life was on the line. If she didn’t give Lucifer what he wanted, he’d torture her until she did. If she somehow survived that, mind intact, and still refused him, he’d kill her.
Yael couldn’t let that happen.
“I’m going with you,” Yael demanded.
Asha met his stare, a cloak of shadows and power enveloping her body, leaving just her face free. Her eyes bore into his, black and fathomless, her cheekbones sharp and skull-like. He took an involuntary step back. This woman was not the cambion she was rumored to be.
“I work best alone.” Her voice echoed with the screams of the dead.
“You’re Hades’ personal assistant,” Trick said incredulously.
The aura around her vanished. “Yes, but I am the only one.”
Yael decided not to delve into the logic behind that. “I have to help save Rowan.”
“Not with me, you don’t.” Asha shook her head.
Hades narrowed his lemon-colored eyes. “No, but you can come with me.”
“Go with you where?”
The god grinned, evilly. “To create a distraction.”
Chapter 48
“Just open yourself up to me.” Luke’s voice was a hot whisper against her ear.
Rowan rolled over, blinking her eyes open. She jerked upright. She’d been asleep on the rock floor of her cell. Luke stood on the other side of the metal bars, staring at her.
“What were you doing?” she asked, shoving a handful of hair from her face. It had knotted into a bird’s nest.
“A little subconscious influencing. Did it work?” He smiled, that beautiful charming smile. She should have known it was fake the first minute she saw it.
“No.”
“A shame. You won’t like my more conscious methods.”
She didn’t doubt him. “You aren’t wearing glasses.”
“No, I don’t need them. But they work for my human persona, don’t you think? A little like that superhero.”
Lucifer had likened himself to Clark Kent?
“I hope you’re enjoying your accommodations. I put you in one of the nicer cells. Did you like the guards coming by? Still don’t believe in magic?”
She ignored his taunting. He was trying to get to her, to make her edgy. Well, she hadn’t been raised by the most stubborn woman in existence for nothing. “I won’t let you use me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You already have.” He tucked his hands into his pockets, looking like he’d just stepped off a photoshoot.
“What do you mean?” She shuffled until she could sit, leaning her back against the wall. She hated to think she’d inadvertently helped him. But what could I have done?
“I got you to find Twosret for me. Eventually, I’ll find what I need.”
“You mean Heaven’s Heart?”
His pale eyes narrowed. “So, the fallen angel told you about that?”
“He thought it might be what you were searching for.”
“He’s not wrong. When you first entered the tomb, did you see anything that could be the Heart?”
As if I would tell you, you dirty big snake. Considering she had no idea w
hat it looked like or what it even did, she answered honestly. “No.”
Angels can sense the truth.
Yael had taught her that. And Luke—Lucifer—was the first fallen angel. If she lied, he’d sense it. I have to be very careful in what I say.
Because she wanted to make it out of this alive.
“No pretty jewels, or fancy stones?” he asked.
A flash of the rose quartz she’d thought she’d found sprang to mind, but she shoved it away. It wasn’t what she’d call fancy or a jewel, so she said, “No.”
“A pity. There must be a hidden compartment in the tomb. I’ll just have to keep hunting.”
She didn’t have anything to say to that, and he just watched her, unblinking, like she was an insect he was about to dissect. “You have no idea how powerful you are.”
“I can’t do magic, I already told you that.”
“No, but you can siphon the universe’s energy into a magic-user’s hands. With the right tutelage, you may even learn to harness it yourself. Don’t you want to become powerful? To not fear those stronger than you?”
“Your sales pitch is missing the obvious.”
“And what is that?”
“You have already trapped me. You would never teach me enough to escape you, so I would always be at the mercy of someone stronger than me.”
He laughed, as if delighted by her.
“From the moment I met you, I knew you would not disappoint me. Your will is strong, but you will eventually give in to me. You already have once.”
“I agreed to the dig because it was the opportunity of a lifetime.” And look what had happened. The tomb had been ransacked by a black-winged angel the day it was opened, she’d been caught in a time warp, and she’d managed to fall for Yael.
It had all been a bit of a disaster, really.
“Yes. But you set aside those precious principles to do it. And we could still do this the nice way.”
She pressed herself further into the wall. “The nice way?”
“I was planning on seducing you. Making you my consort. And I’d already made significant progress in that.” He glared. “Until that fallen interrupted things.”
“Significant progress? I rejected you.” And she’d felt bad at the time, as well. Hah! Goes to show what she knew about men.
“Only because you had a lover. Once he was gone, it would have been simple.”
“Once he was gone? He died in a car accident.”
Lucifer smirked. “Did he?”
Horror washed through her.
No.
No.
“You killed him?”
“Drunk drivers are so unpredictable.”
He murdered Eric. Because of her. But why? He said she was a conduit thing, but she’d never been capable of channeling magic.
What about those times Gran asked you to be ‘open’?
She’d thought it was nonsense, like she had everything else. But maybe there was some truth there.
It was still her fault.
She’d contacted Lucifer because she’d wanted to study the Amenonuhoko, a Japanese artifact he’d housed in his collection. Why had I been so interested in it? It wasn’t her normal area of expertise, but she had been focused on finding it. And she had. He’d flown her to his mansion so she could study it in person.
If she’d never gotten the stupid idea in her head that she had to research the thing, Eric would be alive even now, because she wouldn’t have ever met Luke. None of this would have happened.
The tolling of a bell echoed through the Tower, deafening in its intensity. “What now?” Lucifer muttered. “I’ll be back.” He strode away.
Rowan leaned her head back against the stone wall, closing her eyes. It’s all your fault.
Perhaps.
But she was going to have to learn to live with it.
“Psst.”
How can I be with Yael when I am the reason Eric is dead?
“Pssst.”
Rowan’s eyes snapped open. She thought she’d heard—
But no one was there.
She stood, approaching the bars.
“You’re Rowan?”
Rowan jumped. There, in the shadows outside her cell, was a beautiful woman, with midnight hair. She quickly emerged from the gloom, dressed from neck-to-toe in black, just like Yael did.
“Yes, I’m Rowan.”
“Good.” The woman appeared Japanese, but her accent was strange. And her eyes weren’t pure brown, rather they had flecks of gray and green and other colors hidden within. “Stand back.”
Rowan took a step back automatically, just as the woman threw a handful of dust at the bars. She muttered a word Rowan couldn’t understand, and the stench of hot metal filled the room, adding to the already pungent odor of rotten eggs.
“Climb out,” the woman urged.
Rowan hesitated. “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”
“I like how you think, but it isn’t. I’m risking my own ass being here.”
“And you are?”
“Must we do introductions now?”
“I am not leaving the cell until I know who you are and that you aren’t working with Luke—I mean, Lucifer.”
“My name is Asha, and I am Hades’ P.A. I don’t work for assholes. Well, not total assholes.”
She wasn’t sure what convinced her, but she knew in her gut that Asha wasn’t on Lucifer’s side. She climbed through the hole in the bars, careful not to touch the red-hot ends.
Outside the cell, Asha drew some Japanese kunji on the walls around the entrance. Then she cut her finger and smeared a single drop of blood in the central marking. She gave Rowan a thumbs up. The wound had already healed. “Let’s go.”
“What were you doing?”
“An illusion spell. It’ll hold for about thirty minutes, which is hopefully all we need.”
They made it to the end of the corridor, just as a huge demon guard came around the far corner. Asha pressed Rowan against the wall, using the hanging darkness to hide them temporarily. She muttered quickly under her breath. A strange tugging sensation made Rowan itchy. It was coming from where Asha touched her; her skin growing cold. Instead of fighting against the feeling, Rowan opened herself up, just like her gran asked her to.
Shadows coalesced around them, until Rowan could see nothing but black. Footsteps pounded by, but there were no shouts of recognition. Once the footsteps faded into the distance, Asha pulled them free of the gloom. “That was close. What did you do? I can’t normally call shadows that well.”
“I’m told I am a conduit. I just…opened myself.”
Asha stared at her for a few heartbeats. “Don’t go advertising that. Ever. Let’s move.”
They hurried into another corridor and reached a stairwell. They climbed. Rowan was puffing after one flight. The lack of sleep and food had caught up with her. She had to rest on a landing five flights up, and Asha tugged them into a corner, doing her shadow thing again in case someone came by. But there was no one.
“I’m surprised the patrols are so slow,” Asha murmured. “Makes me wonder about a trap. But let’s go.”
Eventually, they emerged out of the top of the stairwell and a small chamber, which had several guards stationed around the room. “Keep out of the light.”
Rowan nodded.
Asha grabbed hold of her hand and they skirted the edge of the room, dodging behind oblivious guards. Whatever magic Asha had, it was certainly effective. They passed beneath an archway and entered a wide brick hall, decorated with suits of armor. Rowan gagged involuntarily at the sight of them: she swore skulls stared at her from behind the face plates.
Asha tugged on her hand. “It’s the suits. They are fueled by necromancy. Your body knows it’s magic that goes against nature.”
There was a small alcove up ahead and Asha pulled her into the space. “Time to leave.” She waved a hand, and a glowing ov
al thing hung suspended in the air.
“What—?”
“It’s a portal. Come on.” Asha pulled Rowan through. Her entire body sizzled, like she’d touched an electrical socket.
One step later and their surroundings had changed, a rocky shoreline stretching out before her. Sand glittered in the twilight sky, sparkling like it was made from tiny black diamonds. A dull gray ocean lapped at the shore, and peace sunk into her bones, a sense of serenity dampening the air, which held the mild tang of sulfur.
Asha bent at the waist, grabbing her side as if she had a stitch. “We’re out.”
I’m free.
For now.
I have to speak to Yael. She grabbed her cellphone out of her pocket, heart sinking when she saw there was no signal. Although… “Where are we?”
“You’re in my domain, on the Isle of Himiko,” Asha said. “Your cell won’t work here, not unless you have had it upgraded for Hell.”
“Hell?”
The woman nodded. “We’re in a part of Tartarus.”
Tartarus. Yael said that Hades ruled Tartarus. So, she was free of Lucifer. But was Hades any better?
Asha said he wasn’t a total asshole.
But that meant he could still be a bit of an asshole.
Stop worrying. You’re free now.
“Thank you. For saving me.”
“You’re welcome.” The woman grinned. “Now, let me let my boss know we’re out.”
Chapter 49
Tower of Terrors, Sheol
It was a new experience, looking like a woman, but Yael knew he rocked it. He was wearing the illusion of Asha, so Hades appeared to be paying an official visit, P.A. in tow. The only downside was that he certainly didn’t sound like one, so he had to keep his mouth zipped. Which was cool, because the only thing he wanted to do to Lucifer was rip the guy’s head off. Concentrating on keeping his witty one-liners behind his teeth helped distract him.
“Lucy, you’ve been a bad boy.” Hades had condescension down to an art form.
The other Hell-lord stared at the Greek god like he was dirt beneath his shoe. “At least I didn’t fuck my niece.”
Hades drew back, placing a hand over his heart. “Low blow, Lucy. Low blow.” But the god wasn’t offended, if anything, he seemed amused.
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