Page 34 of Ride or Die (The Body Shop #5)

S weet anticipation spurred me faster and faster to where Matty remembered parking the wagon, but there was no sign of Josie when we broke through the trees. No sign of Carter or her truck either. Mucky tire tracks chewed up the sparse grass, showing where Carter had spun out in a hurry.

“They must have left together.” Matty kicked a clod back in place. “That’s good news, right?”

“Does Josie still have your phone?”

A quick touch of his pocket, which he found empty, confirmed she had held on to it.

“Carter has hers,” Harrow said, joining us. “Yep.” He flashed me the screen on his cell. “She texted to say she took Josie back to her place to talk.”

Eager to check my own messages, I found Josie had texted us, but I had muted the phone at some point. The manufacturer really shouldn’t put the button for silent mode where my fingers liked to grip the side.

“We got one too,” I confirmed to Matty, exhaling slowly. “Josie is with Carter, so that’s one less thing.”

With his chin hooked on my shoulder, he scanned the message for himself. “Any word on Lucia?”

“No.” I showed him the inbox. “Not yet.”

Neither of them pointed out how long she had been gone, or that the likelihood of her returning fell the longer she stayed that way. I didn’t expect Lucia to appear on my birthday with balloons going forward, but I would have liked knowing she was still out there.

And, yeah, that made it sound like her death was a foregone conclusion.

“What’s going on in there?” Matty stared in my ear. “I don’t see your brain churning out bad ideas at the Bad Idea Factory, but there’s smoke in the air.”

“Lucia saved me.” I worked my jaw. “Leaving her to live or die on her own doesn’t sit right with me.”

Had I not been so laser focused on my own revenge, I could have invited Lucia to help with Dis Pater and then returned the favor with Ithas.

Sure, she was a mercenary. And yes, she was used to working alone.

For her handler to keep her on speed dial, she was very good at her job.

But Ithas was a Titan. Killing him was a goal she had chased since the moment she woke up in that hospital bed.

I let those things convince me she would be fine on her own. No. That was a cop-out. I convinced myself divide and conquer was best because I didn’t want to be held back. I’d had my own priorities, and she hadn’t counted as one.

All of my life, I had conditioned myself to not care about my parents. That was what us Marys promised one another, and I had fought my childish yearning into submission to keep that vow. It had never done me wrong, until now.

To learn my father’s identity, and then my mother’s, had numbed me too much for me to crave the type of revenge against Ithas as I hungered for with Dis Pater.

Ithas was too abstract. He had committed horrors, yes, and I could get angry about those.

About what he had done to Lucia. About what he had done to the children before me.

But I hadn’t gotten riled enough to put my foot down and demand Lucia take backup to face him.

For me to do that meant I would have had to break my promise to Matty and Josie.

I would have had to smash through a barrier I had learned to avoid as if it were electrified and allow the little shocks I had experienced since arriving in Abaddon to jolt me into a self-awareness of my roots I couldn’t handle.

I had been a coward.

A swoop in my gut warned me seconds before a bright light nailed me between the eyes. I shoved Matty down and away from me, but I was too late to do the same for Harrow. Wind knocked him to his knees, and I could taste the magic in it. The blast staggered me, but I refused to budge.

Convinced Dis Pater had escaped, I weathered the icy sweat rolling down my spine. Contingency plans flipped through my head, each more dire than the last. Until I saw what was coming, I couldn’t plan for it. All I could do was stand there and wait for this latest threat to emerge.

The brightness punched out, leaving me blinking away spots in my vision.

A portal.

Hope swelled behind my breastbone, and I stepped closer, searching for Lucia within it.

“Don’t make me regret this.” Harrow heaved a sigh and tackled my brother. “Go to her.”

He didn’t have to tell me twice. Lucia should have walked out by now. She must be hurt.

Matty yelled, first at Harrow and then at me, but I banished any second thoughts.

I made it one step before stumbling over a mass and landing on my hands and knees.

Blinking away the brightness, I gave myself a moment to readjust to Abaddon and its gloom.

Slowly, details came into focus, and I could tell I was in Ithas’s home. Lucia was curled in on herself, a hand applying pressure to a gash through her abdomen. The deep cut across her chest wept blood. Ithas had gotten in some good hits. She had given up applying first aid to most of them.

“Hey…kid.” Lucia squinted up at me through her left eye, the right one a swollen mess, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “I couldn’t…think…what else to…do.” Anger burnt in her, hotter than ever. “Don’t let him…live.”

“Don’t give up now.” I made it an order, scanning for him. “You’ve come too far to miss the good part.”

Her answering smile bared pink teeth, but her breaths came easier.

“Where is he?” I pushed to my feet, wishing for a weapon. “I don’t see him.”

“There.” She pointed toward the deepest shadows with her chin. “Hurry before…he breaks free.”

A dagger made its way into my hand, and I nodded my thanks to Lucia as I stalked toward Ithas.

Half of the Titan was pinned to the floor with what I assumed to be the Spear of Thebes. It had done its job and paralyzed him, but I wasn’t sure how long it would hold him, and that wasn’t the only thing happening. Lucia must have thrown everything she had at him while he was at her mercy.

The other half of Ithas swarmed, black buzzing dots, funneling into a jade statue maybe a foot tall.

Difficult to tell if it was a slow draw, like he was being sucked into the statue, or if it could only hold a portion of him and the result left him stuck in a half-solid state.

About to check with Lucia and nail down the details, I glanced over my shoulder to find her unconscious.

No help there. I would have to wing it and hope for the best. Not much different than how I approached everything these days.

I would say that approach hadn’t killed me yet, but it kind of had once already.

Oops.

I really had to work on my pep talks.

Light drew my attention to the right as Anunit joined me, and relief coasted through me at not having to do this alone. “About time you got here.”

“You should have waited for me, Frankie Talbot.”

“I didn’t have much choice.” I had forgotten how much I enjoyed the novelty of hearing her speak out loud. “All I could do was jump and hope for a soft landing.”

Low in her throat, a rumble conveyed her unhappiness with my impulsive behavior.

Unsure which half of Ithas to start with, I gripped his ankle and sent my magic rushing through him until I could determine whether the motes were part of his soul, his essence, or just an intangible expression of himself. No sooner had I brushed his stone-cold skin than I got my answer.

His black hole of a soul pulsed with dark energies, divided between his corporeal and incorporeal bodies.

“Those motes are fragments of his soul given substance.”

“The statue is devouring them,” she agreed with my assessment. “The absorption rate is slowing.”

Too bad I couldn’t just sit back and let the jade do its thing. Ithas was vast, his power enormous, and the statue couldn’t hold him. Halfway through consuming him, it was stalling out, already struggling to devour more of him.

Palms damp, I turned to her for advice. “Where should I start?”

“The soul is all connected, and I have full faith in your abilities.”

The smaller bits of his soul ought to be easier for me to burn out than tackling the more solid spiritual energies rioting in his chest, but I could always switch sides if the jade refused to cooperate.

“You’re overthinking it,” I grumbled to myself, clamping my hands over the cool statue. “Just do it.”

I sank into the heart of my magic with breathless ease. Abaddon had altered me, and I wasn’t thrilled about it. I had never wanted to be adept at this particular skill, but I was mastering it in this realm.

Slow heat built in my palms, igniting in my fingertips, and icy pressure wafted off the stone into me.

Among its many qualities, jade was believed to protect souls in the afterlife.

Some claimed it would even prevent bodies from decomposing.

Others credited it with absorbing negative energies.

A popular stone for bangles, a broken one was viewed by the wearer as a blessing.

The belief was, it had absorbed harm meant for the wearer and sacrificed itself, cracking in the process.

With the right magic, and some creative thinking, those attributes could form a solid base to build a soul prison on. Whether it went by that name or another, that was the statue’s function. To imprison spirits.

“Not good.” I shut my eyes, focusing on the writhing power trapped within the stone. Tendrils of black magic snapped out at the barrier, whirling within the natural inclusions. “This isn’t going to hold much longer. We might only have minutes before the push/pull of energies saws through the jade.”

“You must act quickly.”

Cracks were forming. Fissures in the curve. This must have been Lucia’s last resort. The other relics had weakened Ithas enough for the jade to ensnare him, partially, but it wasn’t a permanent solution. Sooner rather than later, Ithas would break free.

Allowing myself to float onto the astral plane, my senses divided between the cool jade in my hands and the infinite weight of an eternal soul circling a wide channel carved through its center. I flexed my spectral fingers around the stone, passing through the statue to catch on the energy beneath.

As soon as I got a handle on it, I began pouring my magic in as I pulled Ithas’s soul out.

Each tug brought with it a handful of ash, and I coughed as flakes began clogging my lungs. Almost like he was determined to take me with him. But that was fear talking. Ithas was dying in slow increments. He thrashed and bucked in my grip, but he was nowhere near as strong as he should have been.

Whatever relics Lucia used to force his submission had done their job. I was grateful she had softened him up for me. As fast as I was burning through my reserves, I couldn’t have burnt him out without her.

“You cannot kill me, daughter.”

The voice came from inside my head and blasted chills down my spine. “Let’s test that theory, shall we?”

“I am immortal. I am infinite. I am ? —”

“—finished,” a deep voice rumbled from behind me as strong arms encircled my waist.

“Kierce.” A twitch in my neck begged me to turn my head, to see him, to make sure he was okay, but I couldn’t let his arrival split my focus. “Scratch that.” I tightened my grip on the statue. “Are you here to help me end this?”

“With pleasure.” His warm breath coasted past my ear. “Take what you need from me.”

Heat exploded in my cheeks, and I couldn’t figure out how to work my tongue, so I nodded once.

Safe in his arms, I sank back into my power, allowing Kierce to mingle his strength with mine as we had done in New Orleans to pry victims from the Midnight Parade. His forehead came to rest on my shoulder as his essence swirled within me, tightening my gut, and I pushed it out into the jade.

“Daughter, see reason. You must know my work is not yet done.”

“I’m not your daughter,” I gritted out between harsh pants, my lungs flaming as they filled with ash.

Sharp cracks rang out as the statue fractured under the barrage of energies.

Then it shattered into a million jagged pieces that left my palms in ribbons.

The solid half of him skewered to the black stone twitched, proof the spear was draining its magic fast. But a clear slice down the middle split him in two, and the side I had already destroyed was little more than swirling vapor as his form continued eroding before my eyes.

“You have punished me. It is enough. End this foolishness now.”

Outstretching my hand, I slapped my bloody palm across his forehead. “That’s the plan.”

“I have you.” Kierce turned his head so his lips brushed the column of my throat. “You can do this.”

All of a sudden, I wasn’t so sure. Ithas should have been burnt out of existence by now. He was holding on with ruthless determination I wasn’t sure Kierce and I could match. I had to reach into the deepest parts of my soul and wring out every single drop of power to end this.

“I am glad to have met you, Frankie Talbot.” Anunit faded into transparency. “Thank you for reuniting me with my daughter.” She butted her head against my hip. “I am proud of you, guardian.”

Sweat turned my palms slick as I whipped my head toward her. “Why does that sound like goodbye?”

With a feline grin, she stepped through me. No. She walked into me. Her presence nestled in front of my soul like a shield, and the light within me grew brighter. Blinding. And then…I burst apart at the seams.