Page 182 of Jagged Souls

But first, I have to make it through the Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries. That will cleanse my blood-stained soul so I can enter the Greater Mysteries, where I will learn how to split my soul from my body without it killing me. Then I’ll just need to call forth a keres, a reaper of the dead, and bribe my way to Hades’ throne room.

The Lesser Mysteries open in the spring of next year, giving me only months to find the rest of the bribes. I have been growing my collection of cheesy, one-off romances for Hades, a lover of books, for the past few years. I have just been to Blo´dyrio´, where I commissioned a special music box for one of Cerberus’ heads. I have four more “gifts” left to sort: two for his other heads; one for Charon, the ferryman who’ll take me across the river splitting the living from the dead; and Persephone.

I can feel the pressure of my deadline, but three more days will not matter. Besides, I can use the time to research who holds the recipe for Byzantine fire – a green mythical fire that spreads on water. Persephone likes explosives, and I am certain she will love it.

“Three days,” I say, and Eduardo bows his head. There is a sickly smell coming from him, and I do not doubt he needs more time to fully recover, but I don’t like him that much. If he dies, he dies.

Turning from the room, I head down the hall, then up the stairs to the second floor. The yacht rocks in the waves but barely enough to notice due to its size. Everyone on board rotates being captain, steering us away from any storms – though mostly, they just leave it to drift. There’s an app that will tell them if they’re in the way of another boat, but with the size of the ocean, they’ll only see someone every month or so.

I head towards Rudy’s room. There isn’t a ward outside his door. There aren’t any guards to stop him from leaving. There’s simply an explosive collar around the necks of the girl and dog he tried so desperately to save. He gets to see them every so often to remember why he does what he’s told. If he even tries to get down to the lower level or to reach out to Micha at all, they will detonate.

He is far enough away from her to not hear her though. If he could, I don’t trust him not to break. When people are put into impossible corners, you never know which way they’ll go. But if he can’t see her pain, he will tell himself what he needs to in order to justify his decision.

Just like I did when I sent Siome away, believing I was doing the right thing. Instead, I lost eighty-six years with her. Lost the chance to have a family. And I destroyed her life. My choice led her to the dark depths of V, and it took over a year to bring her out.

A year of her promising to get clean, only to relapse over and over again. One day, I’d leave to go get food as I’d done many times before, only to come back and find her gone. Find her in some alley getting railed just to score. It didn’t matter how many people I killed in warning. How many examples I made. Neither an addict nor a dealer has much thought to the consequences of their actions.

My chest tight, I hug the memory of her, then let her go.

But I would take decades of the bad just to have her back in my arms.

Opening Rudy’s room, I step inside.

He’s being fucked by one of the female wolves. She’s riding him as he lies on his back in bed. She’s cupping her own breasts, and the place smells of smoky vetiver with an underlying base of tobacco. The Ricks they’re using increase sperm count and allow the taker to ejaculate multiple times in a row.

“Have any of you succeeded?” I ask as I walk over to the bed. She turns her head, her ass still bouncing up and down. There is a pillow over Rudy’s head. I don’t know which one of them put it there.

“No,” she says.

“Leave us.”

She gets off him instantly, then grabs her robe off the floor. Given our kind is comfortable naked and her purpose here is to breed, that seems out of place, so I ask her the question with my eyes.

She ducks her head. “He feels too innocent.”

I’m taken by surprise, but I don’t say anything, and she leaves, closing the door behind us. Rudy sits up, letting the pillow fall into his lap, hiding his pierced erection. His eyes are haggard, but they still hold a sharp intelligence.

Another surprise.

While I was on Blo´dyrio´, I heard rumors about someone targeting teleporters. Hushed whispers in taverns warning witches not to go out alone. My gut told me that was Varius searching for a way to sneak onboard so he could save his wife. I thought Rudy was too much of an embarrassment for him to bother with as he was a Shadow who couldn’t kill. He was a traitor who’d given up his Boss’ wife, hisbrother’swife in order to save some random child and mutt. Pathetic.

But looking into Rudy’s eyes, knowing the suffering he’s gone through –Timothy not caring about the gender of his victims, and Eduardo excited to dissect his powers– I’m not so sure if the reason he was never seen on a mission before was because he was too weak to join his brothers.

There is a strength within him, and his eyes look too damn old. Like he has seen too much misery.

“How are they?” he asks, mouthing the words. I learned to read lips a long time ago, when I watched Siome from the shadows, not wanting to infect her with my curse.

But I’m not here to talk to him.

I’m here to cut off a bit of him to send to Sau. I need her angry at me, shaking with fury as she vows to kill me herself. Because to get to the River of Styx, which splits the living world from the dead, I need to catch a ride with a reaper of death. But keres only come to collect those who’ve been brutally killed on their path of vengeance.

So Sau will be that someone.

It’s the only reason I’ve allowed her to live. Once I kill all of her kids, I will beat her to death inside a binding circle, temporarily tying our souls together. Then I will use her to catch a ride to the Underworld. She took my mate from me. It is only fitting that she be the sacrifice that lets me get her back.

Stepping up to Rudy, I shift the nails of my right hand into five lethal claws.

Fifty-Five