Page 18 of Crimson Skies

It had held seven stone caskets covered in overlapping layers of runes. They were empty, their lids cracked where they’d been cast haphazardly aside by the sorcerers who’d invaded the premises while the warlock had distracted them.

Delphine crossed the floor from chest to chest, her expression numb.

“They’re gone,” she mumbled. “They’re all gone.”

Theo exchanged a guarded glance with Reuben. Motion in the corridor had them both spinning around.

Jasper appeared out of the gloom.

The demon cast an annoyed look at Theo. “You didn’t have to shield me.”

Theo narrowed his eyes. “A thank you would suffice.”

Reuben sighed.

Theo’s cell rang just as he retracted his divine form. It was Victor.

“Are you okay?” his lover said stiffly when he answered the call.

“Yeah.”

Even though Victor’s voice was full of concern, the deep timbre was enough to make a shiver of need dance down his spine.

Shit. I really want to see him.

Victor’s tone hardened. “What’s your status?”

Theo examined the empty caskets. “They have the summoning staffs. All seven of them.”

9

Cassius eyedthe storm clouds above San Francisco as they drove toward the high rise where the Argonaut Agency office was located. Unease prickled his scalp.

The color of the sky was ominous.

“It is as if Heaven itself is preparing for war,” Tenebra murmured in the front passenger seat.

Atropos’s face tightened. “You give our elders too much credit. Those decrepit fools didn’t lift a finger to stop Elios the first time. I doubt the cowards would do something about him now.”

The resentment in the Moira’s voice made Orena reach over and clasp her hand. Atropos swallowed and clenched her sister’s fingers. She had made her distaste for the ancient Gods who had abandoned the realms to their fate and failed to intervene to stop Elios’s evil machinations all too clear when Cassius had first met her.

“Still, their actions continue to puzzle me even after all this time,”Tenebra reflected.“Their omnipotence has remained unchallenged since their genesis. Their arrogance would normally not allow them to stay silent for this long.”

“We’ve always suspected it was because they feared Elios,”Orena said.“Are you suggesting there might be another reason for their lack of action?”

Tenebra shrugged. “If there is, it has to be a pretty good one.”

Morgan grimaced behind the steering wheel. “Is there no way to just ask them the question?”

“They sealed the gates to Heaven after Elios trapped us in the Seventh Purgatory.”Atropos’s mouth pressed into a thin line.“There is no way for any of us to communicate with them.”

Cassius digested this information uneasily. However much Atropos seemed convinced the Gods of Old had abandoned them, he was of the same mind as Tenebra. Considering all that was done to seal Chaos in the Abyss, it seemed strange that they would remain quiet in the face of his potential resurrection.

His gut clenched as he contemplated Elios’s opening salvo in London.

With no way to destroy the seven summoning staffs impounded by Cabalista following the end of the Hundred Year War that had followed the Fall, the demonic artifacts had been sealed under London for the past four centuries. There had never been an attempt to breach the vault in all that time. His knuckles whitened on his knees.

Until yesterday.