Page 107

THIRTEEN

Sorsha

Omen had been right about one thing: Tempest cared about him enough to agree to another meeting. It’d have been nice if she hadn’t insisted on holding that meeting a three-hour drive away, but hey, why shouldn’t we get in some more sightseeing now that we’d come this far from home?

We parked the Everymobile and our restless companions a couple of miles from the site she’d chosen, because Omen had promised he’d “deliver” me to her on his own, and the sphinx would sense any other shadowkind who ventured nearby. As we got out, the hellhound shifter caught Thorn’s eye and pointed toward the night sky.

“You and Flint can hover in the darkness up there where you have a decent view of the tower area. As soon as any flames come out, get your asses to us as quickly as possible.” He cast his gaze toward the others. “The rest of you, stay put and out of trouble.”

Snap frowned and tugged me to him for a quick but demanding kiss, as if to remind me why I’d better come back. Ruse didn’t look all that pleased to be left behind either, but his contribution in charming the Company woman’s fiancé seemed to have eased some of his doubts about his worthiness.

“Give her hell for us,” he said to both me and Omen.

Antic hopped from foot to foot in a frenetic dance around the two of us, looking like a little kid who desperately needed to pee. “Are you sure I can’t do anything—cause a distraction? Get her guard down with a laugh? I haven’t even seen this crazy lady yet!”

“Believe me, you’re better off that way,” Omen said dryly.

I had a vision of Tempest pouncing on the imp like a lion on a wobbly baby gazelle. “We can produce some laughs,” I assured her. “The two of us are practically a comedy act.”

She looked at me skeptically while Omen let out a resigned huff. Even if this was the most important scheme we pulled off in his entire crusade, he didn’t expect me to take it with Thorn-level solemnity, did he?

At least we didn’t have a two-mile trudge ahead of us. After we’d walked a few blocks, Omen hailed one of the few taxis cruising the city late into the night. As I sat down in the back seat, my purse clinked faintly.

The cab took off, and Omen glanced over at me. “Are you ready for this?”

I nodded, even though “ready” wasn’t exactly the word I’d have used. I was ready to accept that there was no way I’d ever feel more prepared to face off against a shadowkind psychotic genius than I did right now, so we might as well get it over with. We’d trained more throughout the day. I knew the movements I wanted to make by heart. But neither of us could predict exactly how Tempest would behave once we had her in front of us.

Would the silver-and-iron chain in my purse be enough to restrain her voodoo? Would I manage to meld the ends into place around her in time? How much of myself would I scorch while burning her eyes blind?

All very good questions I’d soon have the answer to, whether I liked them or not.

It wasn’t hard to tell when we were coming up on our destination. The Leaning Tower of Pisa caught the light from the streetlamps on its pale, slanted surface, looking for all the world like a several-tiered wedding cake a few seconds from toppling over. Here was hoping our little duel didn’t give it the final shove. I’d already destroyed one city landmark in the course of this crusade.

Tempest wasn’t visible when we first stepped out, but a couple of young men were standing near the base of the tower. I hesitated, not sure how we could go through with this meeting when we had mortal spectators, but the sphinx materialized out of the darkness a moment later in between the two guys without showing any concern at all. Actually, she patted one of them on the shoulder with the air of someone petting a dog.

She’d dressed differently but no less lavishly for this occasion. Tonight’s robe looked like a toga, I guessed to fit the Italian theme, but not your standard white sheet. No, when Tempest wore a toga, naturally it had to be rich crimson silk adorned with an ornate golden clasp and stitched with glinting gemstone beads. While we were in view of the public—though quiet—streets, the thick locks of her bronze hair lay peacefully around her head, but as I watched, a couple of them twitched as if jonesing for the chance to fly free.

I couldn’t get close to her just yet. Judging by his own sensitivity, Omen had estimated that she wasn’t likely to notice the chain of noxious metals I was carrying as long as I kept at least ten feet away, ideally more just to be safe. I stopped on the grassy lawn that filled much of the yard around the tower and curled my fingers around my purse strap, resisting the urge to check yet again that I’d left the top open so I could dip my hand inside in an instant.

Omen ambled forward with an unusually casual air—but then, he was supposed to be convincing Tempest that he was here to make friends. He tipped his head toward the sphinx’s mortal lackeys. “You brought company. I thought we were meeting alone.”

“You have your semi-human toy, so I figured I was allowed two that are fully human.” Tempest gave her mortal underlings a disdainfully amused glance. “Not that they serve much use here, but it does delight me to have them assist what they hate so much.”

Did they know what she was, then? How could any member of the Company of Light tolerate being ordered around by a shadowkind?

The same way we’d managed it in the past, no doubt. “You’ve got them under some kind of spell,” I couldn’t help saying, even though I’d been meant to keep my mouth shut. Omen should know by now to allow a little leeway whenever that rule was part of a plan that involved me.

Tempest let out a lilting chuckle. “Oh, hardly. I asked a riddle, and they couldn’t answer it, and that bound them to protect me until the effect wears off, unless they die serving that purpose in the meantime.” She gazed through her eyelashes at the man she’d patted. “If it wasn’t for that, you’d want to murder me just like you do all shadowkind, wouldn’t you?”

“You’re a monster,” the guy said stiffly. “All our work goes toward ridding this world of you and those like you. As soon as I’m out from under this magic?—”

Tempest waved her hand in a bored gesture to stop him. “Yes, yes. We’ll see about that.” Her gaze slid back to me. “Does it bother you, semi-mortal that you are, to hear how viciously your own kind hates the monstrous side you’ve uncovered?”

I managed to speak with an impressive amount of calm. “Not as much now that I know they’ve all had someone magically pulling the strings behind the scenes.”

The broken-glass laugh I remembered from Versailles tinkled out of her. “Do you think I conjured their hatred? I only gave them a purpose to put it toward, one they leapt to pursue oh so easily. I have no supernatural power that allows me to change the contents of men’s minds or produce motivation where there is none—Omen can attest to that.”

The hellhound shifter’s expression was all the confirmation I needed. “I’d imagine you talked a good game leading them down the garden path, though,” he said lightly. “You are a master of words.”

“Hmm,” Tempest purred. “To some extent. They certainly have no idea everything they’re in for, but that’s only in regards to how their goal will affect them, not us.” She nudged the man beside her. “Why do you want to slaughter all shadowkind?”

“Why call them that?” he said immediately, with a disgusted curl of his mouth as he glared at her. “We all know they’re monsters, like you are. They lurk in the shadows and steal from us, stalk us—we’ll never be safe until they’re gone from this world.”

“And who told you all that about these monsters?”

“No one needed to tell me. The first Company hunter I worked under showed me. The one we trapped would have slashed us all to pieces if we hadn’t acted quickly enough.”

The sphinx arched her eyebrows. “And what makes you so sure we’re all like that?”

“Look at what you’re doing to us right now,” the man shot back. “Forcing us to be here against our will, to help you, over a stupid question I couldn’t answer. As soon as that magic wears off, I’m going to?—”

“You know what, I can see now that bringing two of you may have been overkill. I won’t force you to endure this apparent misery any longer.” Tempest swung back her hand, flicked a row of knife-like claws from her fingers, and drove them straight into the side of the guy’s head.

I bit back a cry, biting my tongue at the same time. The metallic flavor of blood seeped through my mouth as the same liquid seeped across the young man’s head.

His eyes rolled up, and he collapsed to the ground the second the sphinx retracted her claws. She wiped her hand nonchalantly on the other man’s shirt, ignoring his flinch. “There. Am I not merciful?”

They weren’t wrong to call her a monster, in every meaning of that word. But at the same time, she’d made their human monstrousness all too clear. As much as I’d have liked to believe that I could blame the horrors of the Company of Light on this one shadowkind being, I’d met too many independent hunters and collectors over the years. That depth of hatred and revulsion could absolutely dwell in mortal hearts without any coaxing necessary. Hell, we mortals slaughtered other groups of humans often enough with less justification.

My own emotions flared inside me, anger and disgust at both this woman and the mortals working beneath her—and more than a little fear at the powers she could wield. I clamped down on a burst of flame just before it shot to the surface of my skin. It seared across my muscles all the same, and I clenched my jaw tighter against the pain.

I was supposed to be here willingly—I was supposed to be letting Omen hand me over to Tempest for her purposes.

“No less than he deserved,” I made myself say.

Tempest’s eyes gleamed approvingly. “Precisely.” She turned her attention to her former lover and co-conspirator. “So, you’ve come around to seeing the ‘light’, have you, my dear friend?”

I could only guess how he winced inwardly at that label. “It’s as the phoenix says,” he replied. “They deserve whatever hell you’re going to rain down on them. And who better to help you than a hellhound? I’d rather be by your side than scrambling around attempting to protect the pathetic creatures of our kind who can’t take care of themselves.”

To someone who’d heard Omen speak so emphatically about what he owed the lesser shadowkind and his shame over having brought harm their way in the past, those remarks held no ring of truth. But they must have been the sort of thing he might have said to appease the sphinx back then, and they were what she wanted to hear, what she thought he should feel. She had no idea what he’d been through in the centuries since they’d last schemed together.

Tempest smiled and inclined her head. “I knew you’d come around. Such good timing. We’re nearly ready for the grand finale.”

As she’d hinted before and Ruse’s questioning had appeared to confirm. Omen smiled lazily back, but his gaze had turned more intent. “Your disease is perfected?”

“Only another tweak or two. I doubt we’re more than a week away from making good on all these years of work.” She rubbed her hands together and studied me again. “And for whatever other havoc we wish to wreak, you’ve brought me this lovely gift. How have you convinced her to turn against her own kind?”

“They’re not my kind,” I said automatically, as we’d rehearsed.

Omen nodded approvingly. “The human side of her has its weaknesses. My incubus was able to charm her into following my will. Whatever I tell her to do, she’ll do.”

He wished. I resisted the urge to give him my most saccharine grin and a cloying, “Yes, Master.” Go too over the top and the jig would be up.

“Wonderful. You’ll have to expand that influence to include me.”

“Sorsha,” Omen said with a hint of a sardonic drawl, “do as Tempest says.”

“Of course.” I smiled brightly at her, and another flare of fire crackled up through my chest. Thankfully, my purse hid the balling of my hand as I willed it down.

Keep it under control. Keep my cool until I needed to blaze. I could handle this.

“Better under your sway than following her irrational mortal compulsions.” Tempest curled a finger to beckon me over. “Let’s look at you up close and see what you’re capable of, firebird.”

Oh, she was about to experience my capabilities, all right. This was the moment Omen and I had planned for. As I walked toward her, I inhaled deeply, every muscle coiling for the perfect launch of my powers. Two more steps, one?—

I shoved one hand into my purse and whipped the other toward the sphinx at the same moment. While my fingers closed around the chain and yanked it out, fire streaked through the air from my extended palm.

It didn’t go the way it had when we’d practiced, though. My emotions were churning too fast and furious—the fire’s warble blared behind my ears. Flames sizzled around my neck and down my spine, and the blast I’d intended to hurl straight into Tempest’s eyes like the stab of a scorching dagger instead flickered apart into a whirlwind of sparks.

No . I flung the chain, aiming a heft of heat with it to guide its course and soften its metals, but my initial slip had given Tempest just enough warning for her to dodge. The chain smacked into the side of her robe but didn’t quite whip all the way around her.

Omen lunged at her, shifting into hellhound form in midair, but the sphinx was already diving into the shadows. I’d swear I heard a snarl of harsh laughter echo from the darkness around the tower.

Omen vanished too. I was left with a blob of melted metal, Tempest’s other trapped mortal, and the singed grass that marked my failure.

Fuck a donkey’s dingus.

A burnt smell lingered in the air, and my scalded skin stung with the movement of the breeze. Fresh heat was already roaring up inside me. I strode back and forth across the grass, gulping air and tamping the fire down as well as I could. The stinging sensation spread all the way down to the small of my back.

When Omen reappeared, the two wingéd had joined him. All of them looked both weary and pained.

I stated the obvious. “She escaped again.”

Of course she had. Omen had known we didn’t stand a real chance without tricks up our sleeves—and I’d bungled the damn trick. My fury with myself seared even hotter than the rest of my anger, blistering the bottom of my tongue.

We wouldn’t get another chance like this. She’d never trust Omen again. And in a week or less, she’d have the Company unleashing their hell on this entire realm.

Somehow, the fact that Omen didn’t point out my failure made the guilt slice deeper. “We’ll find another way,” he said. “There’ll be other options.”

But this had been our best one. I’d just gotten so fucking pissed off…

“If all those shithead mortals who joined up with the Company weren’t so excited to murder every being they don’t understand,” I started, and the blistering heat spread through my gums.

“She’s collected the worst of them,” Omen said. “They feed off each other’s hate. They hardly represent all of your kind.”

He couldn’t quite make that reassurance sound convincing. I knew how he felt about mortals. In his mind, I was the exception, and mainly because of the shadowkind side of me. He only cared about shadowkind hurting humans because it brought more rage back down on his own people.

I couldn’t stop moving, my feet carrying me to the base of the tower and back again. If I stopped, if I so much as slowed down , the flames surging through me might spring farther ahead—right out of me.

Thorn took a step toward me, his expression fraught. “Sorsha.”

I shook my head before he could go on. “One fight lost. There’ll be plenty more. There always are, right? I just need to cool off. You all go ahead, fly back to the Everymobile or whatever. I’ll walk it. That should be enough.”

My companions hesitated. “Something makes me think you could use a chaperone,” Omen said, managing to keep his tone mild.

I glared at him, reining in the fire so well for just a moment that the searing dwindled away. “I know what I need better than you do. And what I need is a good long walk without anyone judging my every move. We all know I fucked up here. Please don’t rub it in. I promise Darlene will be perfectly safe from me by the time I get there.”

He paused, his face tensing, but he didn’t snap back. When he replied, it was in the same mild voice. “I know you gave it everything you had, and I can’t judge you badly for that. You need space to work out your judgments of yourself? It’s yours. If you lose your way, call us and we’ll come get you.”

Not a chance I’d humiliate myself like that. I nodded curtly.

Thorn frowned. “Are you sure? I could give you space but still stay within sight, in case you should have need of me.”

My loyal warrior with his determination to protect me. The worst part was, his insistence only made the fire inside me prickle more fiercely.

“Did you see any other shadowkind around, or people who might be working with Tempest?” I asked.

“No,” he admitted.

“Then I shouldn’t ‘have need.’ Give me a chance to breathe, all right?”

Thorn still looked reluctant, but he followed Omen and Flint into the shadows at his boss’s gesture.

Tempest’s dupe kept standing there, but I felt more like burning him to a crisp than doing anything to help him. I spun on my heel and stalked away from the tower.

With every block I covered, the fire inside me blazed hotter. My fingernails dug into my palms within my fists. I passed rows of stucco buildings, restaurant patios abandoned for the night, shadowed doorways and winding alleys. All the windows were dark, any inhabitants sleeping behind them.

Sleeping and blissfully unaware of the terrors being committed around them. Would they care even if they knew? The Company tortured and murdered shadowkind, but the whole rest of the human race happily told their ghost stories and made their monster movies and fueled that hatred, and maybe they’d have all joined in if they’d realized how real those creatures actually were.

Pricks and bastards, all of them. And I was too, wasn’t I, wanting even for that brief moment to blame Tempest for their crimes? The real monsters were right here, all around us, laughing and living their mindless lives?—

A wave of heat so huge it qualified as a tsunami rolled through me—and out of me. Flames crashed and caught all across the face of the buildings along the street ahead of me. More lashed down the backs of my arms and legs.

I dropped to the ground, smacking my limbs against the pavement to put out the fire. That did nothing for the inferno already swallowing up the entire block of shops I’d been approaching.

The fire roared, smoke billowing up. Glass shattered as the flames whipped higher. Cries rose to join it as people in the apartment building across the street woke to the blaze. They were lucky my flames hadn’t headed in that direction, burning up them instead of store merchandise.

My gut twisted into one huge knot. I was lucky.

The heat that washed over me on the night wind woke up a renewed throbbing across all the spots I’d been burned myself. I froze, staring—at a fruit and vegetable market where all the delicacies my devourer would have swooned over had already blackened. At a musical instrument vendor where piano strings were twanging as they snapped. At a watch store where the melting glass faces in the shattered window showed I’d literally made time fry.

I’d done that. Dozens of people’s livelihoods were being incinerated before my eyes because of the fury I’d let loose. And there wasn’t a single thing I could do to calm those flames. Every part of me ached with the suspicion that if I reached with my power to try to control the fire, I’d only end up hurling out more.

So I followed the strategy that had served me so well in my career as a thief—I ran as fast as my feet would take me.

The crackling roar of the fire and then the swell of sirens dogged me long after I’d left the scene behind. As I dragged in each breath, a smoky smell congealed in my lungs. I pushed myself onward toward the spot where the RV was waiting, a heavier sensation welling up inside me, drowning the last of my inner fire.

I was a menace. How much more was I going to destroy before this battle was over? What if the Highest were right? What if I was a greater threat to both mortals and shadowkind than Tempest had ever been?

I should march right into the Everymobile and tell Omen to take me to the Highest to meet the fate I’d escaped so long.

I paused and shut my eyes. The hopelessness squeezed around my ribs, suffocating. But through it, the image of Tempest’s gleaming slit-pupil eyes, of her broken-glass laugh, returned to me.

She’d provoked me. She’d figured out the best buttons to push and jammed on them like a six-year-old pulling an elevator prank. She’d wanted me to explode, probably way more than I actually had, so she could snicker about it afterward.

I hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone. And if I gave up, I’d only be stepping out of Tempest’s way. She’d like that, wouldn’t she?

I’d been our best chance of stopping her, and maybe I’d get another chance.

I knew better what to expect from her now. The others were counting on me. I had to stick with this at least long enough to save the rest of the world from the brutal chaos she intended to inflict on it.

And after that… then maybe I’d feel I needed to be put down. But not yet. Too much was riding on me. Too many lives hung in the balance.

I raised my chin and started walking again. The air that filled my lungs tasted cleaner now. The sirens had faded away.

I intended to see this mission through to the end, and heaven help anyone who got in my way.