Page 21

Chapter 21

T he sun cast warm golden light over Mari as it brushed the peaks of the mountains to the west. People from all over the city filled the compound for the first ever Reyes Employee Thanksgiving Picnic. Giselle and Dante had been planning for weeks and had set out an impressive spread that so far had been a big hit.

Basilio would never have considered an event like this in all his long days. And Mari thought that maybe that’s where all his problems had started. He had never considered anyone else or their needs in his calculations. The only occasions that mattered were those that honored and paid homage to him.

When people came up to thank her for something, she carefully redirected them toward Cisco or Rio or Dante, who deserved their praise much more than she did. Yes, she kept the magical lights on, but she was more figurehead than actual manager of anything. She wouldn’t know which way was up on a business ledger and couldn’t have told you a thing about any of their properties beyond the ones she had personally visited.

A small boy with shaggy, dark hair bounded up to her with a handful of haphazard flowers clutched in his hand. He stammered for a few seconds before saying, “Nana said I should bring these to someone after she helped me pick them, and you look the nicest.”

Mari leaned down and reached out a hand for the bundle. “Who’s your Nana?”

The boy turned to point at Giselle with a sheepish smile.

“Oh, you must be Nate. She talks about you all the time.”

He blushed and looked at his toes.

“Well, I think you’re the nicest person here, Nate. Because you picked these and brought them over here and made me smile.” She held them to her chest and beamed at him.

He made a joyful exclamation and ran off at full speed never looking back, likely to find one of his parents.

Dohal’s hand skated up her back when she straightened. She hadn’t even heard him approach. A few of the nearby people cast curious glances his way, but after the first few minutes they had stopped being filled with tension and worry.

“You felt so pleased that I needed to come over here and see the reason.”

“It’s a beautiful day, and a very handsome gentleman just brought me these.” She flourished the flowers his way.

“If you decide to adopt any more strays, we might need to add a new wing onto the main house.”

She grinned up at him. “That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

Rio came over and slung an arm around her. “What is it we’re plotting?”

“Expanding the house so Mariana can keep offering homes to anyone who looks the slightest bit melancholy,” Dohal said with amusement.

Rio chuckled and leaned to kiss her cheek. “That sounds like the best plan I’ve heard all week. I’ll start talking it over with Clovis. He’s around here somewhere.”

“Don’t you dare.” Mari elbowed him in the ribs. “No work talk today.”

“Fine, it can wait until—”

A tremor shook the ground under their feet, starting as the slightest shiver and then quickly intensifying until cups started falling from tables and chairs tipped.

Someone screamed, but Mari couldn’t figure out who it was or if they were hurt because Dohal had wrapped her and Rio up in his arms. His wings formed a dome over them to block out anything that might fall from above.

Ashdei materialized in front of them in a gout of blue flame. “He’s coming.”

“Get her out of here,” Dohal barked. He moved to hand her across to the demon, and she was about to protest at being handed off like a burden of laundry when she realized it was too late.

Behind Ashdei, the Old One rose from the ground, dirt and rock falling from him in clumps. People ran away in every direction as he towered above them, taller and broader than Mari had ever seen him. “This ends today,” the giant intoned. “I will wipe all of you from this realm like the vermin you are.”

The monster reached out a clawed hand, the green glow of his magic launching from his fingers to engulf all of them. Ashdei’s shield sprang up into place between them, absorbing what would surely have been a killing blow, but the shield cracked under the force, driving Ashdei to his knees.

“I can’t hold this for long,” Ashdei said between clenched teeth.

Panic grabbed Mari by the throat. The moment of truth had arrived, and she still had no idea what to do to defeat the creature that was determined to destroy them. All she knew was that she couldn’t do nothing.

With no idea what caused the instinct, she said, “Put me down, Dohal. I need to touch the ground.”

He hesitated only for an instant, bless him, and then he complied with her orders, dropping her to her feet. She slipped out of her sandals, her toes digging into the soil under them. She pulled from the nexus as hard as she could, absorbing the magic until she was full to bursting.

Dohal rested one hand on her shoulder, and Ashdei grabbed her wrist. Both of them poured all of their magic into her in a torrent that made her want to sing with the beauty of the righteous perfection that coursed through her. She reached for Ashdei’s nexus through him as well, willing the magic of the Hells to do her bidding and protect them. No resistance barred her path. It was as if she’d always been meant for this.

The shield winked out of existence when Ashdei channeled his power away from it, but her own burgeoning magic turned away the beam that was still aimed at them, driving it back toward the monster that wanted to kill them all.

The Old One screamed in pain as it struck him, howling his agony into the sky. The beam of searing magic fizzled out. A burn as thick around as his arm marred his chest, his gnarled bark skin scorched.

“How can that be?” the Forest Lord asked. He was as big as a house and more powerful than anything that had ever been, and somehow, he seemed uncertain as he gazed at her.

“I’m your child,” Mariana said, not unkindly. “The spark of a deity to make a deity.”

The Old One tilted his head down to regard her. “Yes. I see it now.” He paused for the space of a long breath. “They tricked me.”

“I know, but I tricked them too.” Her lips turned up at the corners. “I already had the spark.”

He leaned to examine her more closely. His laugh was a joyful sound that reverberated around them. “My daughter is a clever, vicious thing. Though I have every reason to hate you, I find myself charmed.” He shook his many-branched head slowly. “Such arrogance. They never could have controlled you for long.”

Mari smiled, thinking of when Dohal had said similar words to her. She knew what he meant now. She was more than Basilio and the other incubi could have ever dreamed—a twice invested deity. Something that had never been in all the eons. All because her mother had been host to the shard that was all that remained of a goddess long forgotten. “So I’ve been told.”

“It is fitting that we have come to this, then.” He passed his gaze over her men who were arrayed around her as if he could see into them and then over the others who peered fearfully from behind cover all around them. “You offer shelter and succor to those who need it.” He seemed surprised by his own conclusion.

“I try to, yes.” She drew a breath. “The man who raised me was cruel, and I’ve sought ways to make amends for that my whole life. That’s one of the ways.”

The Forest Lord stepped closer, his heavy tread shaking the ground. When Ashdei tried to intercede, she pulled him back. Mari moved to stand in front of the towering figure without a stitch of fear. Since the first volley, he hadn’t made any move to attack them. He seemed almost fond.

The Old One stooped over her, his clawed hands passing over her head before settling to touch her. After a moment, he murmured with understanding. “You are more deserving of this realm than I ever was.”

His power poured into her, filled with the energy of things that grow and change. She cried out, not because it hurt, but because she knew at once what he meant to do. In a panic, she tried to dislodge his grip.

She sobbed as his resolve filled her chest. “No, stay. Please.”

“I have been consumed by vengeance much too long. There is nothing else for me, now that I cannot have it.” He looked briefly at Dohal. “And I refuse to take him from you. I will not become another monster in your life as my final act.”

“You never intended to survive this,” Mari said, the certainty of it a heavy weight in her stomach.

“I no longer belong to this world. It has continued on without me.” His voice was tired, but not sad. “But you do.”

Warmth tickled through her, starting at the crown of her head where his hands rested and filtering down through her body to the soles of her feet, spreading into the ground.

Suddenly the earth under her churned with life—deep roots and wriggling bodies and a distant deep heartbeat, all coming together to form another kind of magic. And now she could feel that too, leaching up into her from the most ancient of places.

Mari gasped as it overwhelmed her, but only for a moment, because just when she thought she would drown in the sensation, she understood how to temper it so that it was no longer a flood, but only a trickle. At least until she needed it.

The Old One let his hands trail down to her shoulders. “It is all I can do for you, so I hope it will be enough,” he said, his voice soft. “They will come for you not long after I am gone. But do not forget that this place is not theirs.” He cupped her cheek in one huge, rough hand. “What I am can never end, only be passed to another, and it is yours now. Guard it well, daughter.”

She braced herself for some kind of discharge or explosion, but instead, his body faded slowly into countless motes of green light that danced around her for a moment before settling into her skin. After they were absorbed, she shone with that same light, and as she looked over the men that she had claimed to see them bathed in that green glow, she smiled.

Dohal looked her over with a critical gaze, making sure she was unharmed. He seemed about to ask her as much, when noise unlike anything Mari had ever heard surrounded her. On every side, people fell to the ground, covering their ears and wailing. Dohal was among the last to fall to his knees, reaching for Mari as she crumpled next to him.

She looked up into the sky and saw dozens of angels descending toward them.