The Fire of Hestia

by Shannon Reber

  THE FIRE

  OF HESTIA

  A Madison Meyer Mystery

  Book 6

  SHANNON REBER

  Copyright © 2018 by Shannon Reber

  First Edition

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means

  (electronic, mechanical, photo‐copying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  Published by Magic Fire Publishing

  This book is a work of fiction. Incidents, names, characters, and places are products of the author's imagination and used fictitiously. Resemblances to actual locales or events or persons living or dead, is coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Table of Contents

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  EPILOGUE

  “The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them: the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.”

  ―Genesis 6:4

  ONE

  There was a darkness inside me. It was wrapped around my heart, my lungs, my very soul. I was starting to wonder if it would ever leave me.

  My depression hadn’t been so profound in a long time. It had been even longer since I had felt so alone and afraid. No. I had to snap out of it.

  I was not alone. I had a team, diminished as it was. We were working on finding the guys.

  The problem was, there had been no headway at all. It had been seventeen days and there was nothing. It was like they had dropped off the face of the earth.

  Every time I thought I’d found a lead, it turned out to be nothing. Every time I failed, I crashed even harder. I was too afraid of the misery my failures brought to allow myself to hope freely anymore.

  I had gone through grief counseling after Emma’s death. After I hit acceptance, I knew things would even out. But I refused to accept the idea that I might have lost three of the most important people in my life.

  I grimaced as the agent in front of me stopped for at least the tenth time. She carried a box of files with other files stacked on its top. Those papers had slipped to the side yet again. If I was feeling more patient, I might have offered to help. I wasn’t, though.

  Patience had diminished as soon as hope had. Anxiety bordering on rage was my standard setting recently.

  The FBI office was full of people but I ignored them all. They ignored me as well. It was the best way. If no one cared, there was no chance of losing anyone else.

  After what felt like hours, I was able to pass the woman with the files. I didn’t look at her or even acknowledge her existence. All I did was hit the button to call the elevator.

  When I had taken the job as a consultant for the Arcane Unit, it had seemed like an easy way to get the Chief of Police and his psychotic son off my back. It turned out that working for them was a bit like going back to high school. I was the eighteen-year-old genius-girl who everybody either wanted to pat on the head or simply make fun of.

  Yes, I was younger than them. Yes, I was good with all things electronic. Yes, I did have a criminal record. So what, though?

  I HAD hacked into a few places as a kid. They’d never been able to prove it. Most of the time I’d been brought in for questioning because they knew no one else had my level of skill.

  So being the new kid in the office, plus my now sullen disposition, it had not made me popular in my workplace. Simms was the only one who was still willing to put up with me and that was mostly because I didn’t really talk to him. I’d stopped talking to everybody.

  I got into the elevator when the doors slid open, hitting the button for the lobby. Several people got in at the same time. All of us pretended I wasn’t there. It was my new life.

  I kept my eyes fixed on my phone as the elevator descended. Searching. Always searching. There had to be a way to find the guys.

  For the first time in my life, I had been locked out of a computer system and hadn’t been able to get back in. It was scary to realize they knew I’d been in their network. How had they found out? Could Quinn have been forced to tell them?

  The doors opened and I stepped out with everybody else, my head still down. What had I missed? The internet was usually my playground. That playground had apparently decided to shut down and kick me in the face while I was down.

  “Madison!” someone yelled as I stepped out into the lobby.

  I glanced around, a little startled to see Daw standing by the security station, waving at me like an idiot. I had no idea what he was doing there or why he was so excited? It wasn’t like we’d had anything nice to say to each other in the last couple of weeks.

  I pushed my dark hair behind my ears, unable to remember if I had even put on makeup that morning. Wearing makeup was a good way to disguise the pallor of my skin and the dark circles that were a constant in my life recently. I’d also lost weight again which made me look far too boney.

  I turned toward Daw, my eyes scanning the area. Despite the fact I knew it wasn’t possible, I still looked for Ian. Not seeing him waving at me from across the lobby was another fist straight to the heart. Why had I let hope build inside me again? It was tearing me apart.

  I kept trying to push it back, although it rose up at the oddest moments. I had to hope, even if it killed me. And it just might.

  Yes, my boyfriend had been missing for almost three weeks. Yes, my boss and one of my best friends were missing too. Yes, my sister was AWOL. We were doing all we could, though. I had to focus on that.

  Daw gave me a one-armed hug when I got to him, his expression far lighter than it had been when I’d seen him a couple of days before. “When is the last time you slept?” he asked by way of greeting.

  I pulled away from him, not bothering to answer. Sleep had illuded me for a while. One of his usual lectures would not help. All I wanted was to go back to Erkens’ office and forget the FBI even existed. Maybe one of my searches in facial recognition had brought something up. Maybe there would be something to get my hooks into.

  I raised my brows in surprise as I saw Dawson step around someone he’d apparently been talking to. Our weird little family bond type thing had been a comfort at first, then it had switched to an annoyance.

  Those two were Quinn’s brothers, not mine. They had no say in my life. They had no right to advise me about anything at all.

  If they started lecturing me on taking care of myself again, I was going to hurt someone. I didn’t want to hear it.

  Daw motioned me toward one of the interview rooms just behind the front reception area. “I had an idea,” he said, his eyes alight with the faith that hadn’t dimmed in him even after so many nonsuccesses for us.

  I didn’t answer. I almost walked away. Then again, if those two had shown up, it was possible . . . no. For the purposes of saving my sanity, I had to stop myself from hoping. Or at least try.

  Dawson nudged his chin toward the office as well, something in his expression tel
ling me I was not going to like whatever he had to say. “Before we get to Daw’s idea, there’s news, Madison,” he said, his musical voice just irritating me even more. He didn’t wait for me to ask what his news was. “We thought Quinn was just busy at work but that’s not why she’s been gone for so long. I think they found out she’s been giving you information and put her on lockdown.”

  Too much. Far, far too much. My heart didn’t know how to take any more.

  Daw narrowed his eyes at his brother before he took a step closer to me, invading my personal space. “Listen to me, okay,” he said in a placatory tone. “I think my idea might help us figure this out.”

  I still didn’t speak, my mind too fogged by lack of sleep, heartbreak, anxiety, loneliness, even hunger. My whole system was simply an error message.

  Daw continued on, clearly not caring that we stood in the lobby of the FBI office with people all around us who knew nothing about us or the paranormal world. “I think the reason why we can’t find the PSA is that it’s in another realm,” he told me, his body almost vibrating with excitement.

  A heaviness filled my stomach as my fingers tingled. Another realm. It made sense. Why hadn’t it occurred to me?

  I had gone to the location where the PSA was listed. They had an address in Dormont. It turned out, the address was to a Chinese restaurant. That had been one of my darkest moments.

  If the PSA truly was in another realm, maybe the Chinese food place was the location of the portal. I rushed toward the interview room, my phone in my hand. I was supposed to clear my use of the FBI satellites with my boss. There was no way I was waiting, though.

  Daw and Dawson followed me, closing the door behind themselves as they stepped into the space. It would make me uncomfortable under normal circumstances. Right then, I didn’t care.

  I knew somebody else was in there. I had a feeling it was Simms. My mind was too focused on seeing what the satellite could tell me about the location to even care if it was the director himself sitting there.

  My heart skittered in my chest as an image came up on my phone. The Chinese restaurant was nothing more than a blur. It was the same way our protections made us look. Holy blue screen of death. The restaurant was warded.

  “Madison?”

  I huffed out an impatient breath and flopped back in one of the chairs, setting the phone on the table in front of me. And I looked around. Daw leaned back against one of the walls with his arms folded, his terracotta complexion a truly beautiful contrast to Dawson’s porcelain skin-tone. They were both taller than me by quite a bit, both beautiful in unique ways. Then there was Simms.

  He was a very attractive black guy with buzzed hair and a narrow goatee. Those three guys were the team I had left. I had to make sure they were kept safe. I couldn’t handle losing them. All three of them were family to me.

  Simms leaned his elbows on the table between us. “You are not alone here, Madison.” He motioned to Daw and Dawson. “We’re all in this with you but you’re acting like we’re working against you.”

  My heart sank. He was right. Simms and I had worked together for the last two-and-a-half weeks and in that time, he’d been patient with me. He had let me deal with what was going on in my own way.

  It looked like he was done with that. If this was the intervention it looked like, I was about to receive my ultimatum. Shape up or ship out.

  The thing was, seeing the three of them there with me truly did bring home how lucky I was. Those friends had been my rock, I had just been hellbent on ignoring them.

  Simms extended his hand toward me, palm up. “We’re with you, Madison. Let us help.”

  I felt the wall holding back my emotions start to crumble. He was right. We were in this together.

  I reached out to lay my hand over his, pulling it back when my phone rang. It was the ringtone I had set up for calls to the office. It would be good to have a new case.

  I lifted a finger to tell Simms to hold on and picked up my phone from the table in front of me. “Erkens Investigations,” I said, motioning Daw over as I took my laptop out to take notes on.

  “I’m looking for Madison Meyer,” a man’s voice said.

  “Speaking.”

  “I’d like to hire you,” he said succinctly, his harsh tone making it clear he did not actually want to hire me.

  “If you can tell me--”

  “Look, I don’t have time to dick around here. I’d like to hire you to find my father.”

  I narrowed my eyes, putting the phone on speaker and nodding when my tracker had the guy located. “I do not work for cretins. Looks like we’ve reached an impasse,” I snapped, my eyes going wide as I saw that the guy was at my house.

  A frustrated groan sounded through the phone. It made me miss Erkens even more than usual. “Miss Meyer, if you would be so kind as to help me find my father, I will be eternally in your debt,” he growled in a sarcastic tone.

  The rest of the guy’s information came up, so I sneered at the phone. “Patrick Beech. Age Forty.” I made a tutting noise. “Not very good gas mileage on your truck.”

  There was a long silence before a cold, unamused laugh came through the speaker. “You do live up to your reputation, don’t you, Miss Meyer?”

  “I do my best.”

  The guy paused again. “I need your help. It’s dangerous for me to come to you. I’m willing to take the chance because it’s important to me.”

  My stomach fluttered. It was illegal for me to work cases since Erkens was gone. Right then, I didn’t care. I was missing people I loved too. No way would I let him suffer, even though he was a serious error code.

  I sat back in my seat, staring at my laptop’s screen. “Why are you calling me?” I asked, feeling sure something was going on.

  The guy huffed. “You’re a Paranormal Investigator, right?”

  “Technically, no. I do work for a Paranormal Investigator, though. I’d like to know what you want.”

  “You should have asked me that, then.”

  I closed my eyes and counted to three. What was this guy’s problem? “Why do you need a Paranormal Investigator?” I asked in as calm a voice as I could manage.

  And he spoke the words that changed everything. “Because my father is the angel of death.”

  TWO

  Aetos shivered as he stepped through the portal. The underworld was not a cold place but fear made his blood run cold. It was a cliched saying he’d always thought was ridiculous, until he experienced the icy chill in his veins.

  He knew his life was forfeit. He had failed in his duty so badly, he was surprised he hadn’t been struck down by a handy bolt of lightning. Not that Hades generally wielded such weapons. Hades’ power was over the dead as well as precious metals and gemstones.

  The castle of Hades was a monument to the god’s power. The walls of jagged bricks were made from every gemstone and precious treasure ever known in any and every world. The dim light of the underworld made the riches more difficult to see, yet Aetos knew the truth. The jagged walls also held the blood of Hades’ enemies, as well as those who failed him.

  He did his best to tamp down his terror as he waited for Hades to call on him. He deserved to die. He knew it was true. He had to accept his punishment like the warrior he was.

  “Aetos,” one of the guards said only a few seconds later, smirking as he opened the door to allow Aetos into the throne room.

  He straightened his shoulders and marched through the doors, trying to quell the rising panic inside him.

  He had stood before the god of the underworld on only one occasion. That was the day he had been assigned to guard Spencer. He had assumed it would be an easy job. He had been wrong.

  He kept his eyes down as he walked toward the throne. He was aware that the dead who lingered to see the god work watched him as well, waiting for him to join them. They were a frightening collection of creatures from every realm in existence, some he’d never even seen before.

  Then there was the
cerberus who sat at the base of the steps to the throne. The three-headed dog usually guarded the entrance to the underworld. Sometimes, he was brought in for executions. It must be why he was there. He was Aetos' firing squad.

  It was Hades himself who was the most frightening. He had lived for millennia, yet looked like a man in his forties. His dark hair wasn’t grayed like a human’s would be and there wasn’t a single line on his regal face.

  He sat in his throne with a dark haired beauty next to him. She wore a simple white dress that made her almost glow in the dim light of the land.

  Aetos stepped forward and bowed to Hades, expecting the cerberus to attack him at any moment.

  Hades contemplated him, resting his elbow on the arm of his throne as he did. “Where have you been?” he asked in a calm voice.

  Aetos cleared his throat. “My lord, forgive me. There was an attack and--”

  “Yes, fool. My watchmen have told me there was an attack,” Hades cut in, his voice still calm. “Two weeks ago there was an attack and my son was taken by humans. HUMANS!” he ended on a shout.

  Aetos jerked, doing his best not to allow his trembling knees to give out. “My lord, the humans have found a way to nix magic. They had a device which took away Spencer’s power as well as my own. I was unable to come to you because of my lack of magic.” He waited to see if Hades would even allow him to finish the report before he was killed. Since he made no move to call the three-headed dog forward, Aetos went on. “The humans have found a way to imprison many beings with power. I was told of a princess of the fae being taken by them over twenty years ago.”

  Hades raised a hand to stop him, simply staring him down. “You have failed me,” he stated simply.

  Aetos lowered his head. “I have, my lord,” he agreed, his heart pounding so hard, he felt lightheaded.

  “Is Spencer alive?” the woman asked quickly, her hands clenched in a prayerful pose.

  He inclined his head in deference to the woman. “He is but I haven’t been able to get to him. They have--”