Page 35 of Ride or Die (The Body Shop #5)

A shrieking whine filled my ears, and I clamped my hands over them to block out the noise. I coughed up ash and smoke, my lungs screaming at me for oxygen. A soul-wrenching pain radiated through my chest, and I clutched my collar, tugging it down.

Strong arms rolled me onto my side, and a firm hand patted me between my shoulder blades.

“Breathe.” Kierce made it an order. “You’ve got to get it out of your system.”

Acid churned up the back of my throat, and I emptied my stomach without lifting my head. As soon as I was done, I felt better. Until I remembered the cause for my heartbreak. “Anunit.”

For a creature who had been dead centuries before we met, I felt her true death as if it were her first.

“She sacrificed herself to end Ithas for good.” He stroked sweaty hair off my forehead and sat beside me on the cold stone floor. “The combination of our energies decimated the statue. He’s gone. For good.”

Grateful for his help sitting up, I forced out, “How do we know he won’t respawn?”

“Nothing is ever certain with gods. The same may be true of Titans as well. But I don’t see how he could have survived that. Every ounce of essence was burnt out of the stone and his body.” He drew me against his chest. “We know where he lives now, and we’ll keep watch in case he returns.”

“He could go somewhere else, start over.”

“He could, yes, but all his research is here. Centuries of work he won’t leave behind.”

“We need to get Lucia to a hospital.” I stood on jelly legs. “How do we get out of here?”

With Anunit gone and Lucia unconscious, I wasn’t sure how to transport myself, let alone Lucia.

Searching for any hint of an exit I might have missed earlier, I noticed the door to the mirashii nest observatory stood open. Scrabbling noises came from outside, and fresh urgency surged through me.

With Ithas dead, the ward on the window would have failed. And if the mirashii had been forced to abandon their frontal assault, they would have begun searching for other ways in. We couldn’t be here when they found one, or I was toast.

“I’ll go to Vi.” He rubbed my shoulders. “Papa Legba is our safest choice.”

Favors from gods didn’t come for free, even from the friendly ones.

“Let me try.” I had to trust myself with this power one day, and this was a great time for me to have a little faith. That, and fear of getting eaten by giant piranha chickens was a powerful motivator. “I would prefer not to owe another god if I can help it.”

“I understand.”

Exhausted from a busy evening of committing patricide, I leaned into Kierce and let him brace me on my way to Lucia. I hit my knees beside her, cupped her hot cheeks, and tunneled down into what remained of my power.

Anunit had guided me through the process multiple times, but I hadn’t volunteered to try my hand at it. I had been afraid. I was still afraid. I had so much more power than I had ever imagined at my disposal. It had been easy to ignore it, to hide behind her, but I had lost my shield.

Damn it.

Anunit was supposed to be here. I had so much more to learn, so much more she was meant to teach me. But I couldn’t let my grief blind me to her sacrifice, or to the reward she deserved. To be at peace with her mate and daughter after all this time.

Which meant I had to get my butt in gear and give her a reason to be proud of the guardian she had chosen.

Closing my eyes, I pictured the paths I had walked with Anunit to various locations until I found the one I wanted. Energy coasted from my scalp down my arms and throughout my body. A sense of weightlessness engulfed me, lifting me. Buoyant, I bobbed on unseen currents of energy.

Then gravity slammed into me, and we hit gravel in the parking lot at The Body Shop.

Kierce stood beside me in a blink, forcing me to lay down when I attempted to rise.

“I’ll go for help.” He raked his gaze over me. “Don’t move.”

After I shot him two thumbs-up, he disappeared, and I cranked my head around to assess the damage to Lucia.

From what I could tell, she had landed in the exact position as she had been in.

That was good. Phew. Maybe I hadn’t broken anything else in her.

Either her shifter or fae genes had kickstarted her healing abilities. She wasn’t bleeding out anymore, but she had lost a lot of blood. Enough I might have to donate if we were a match.

As I was checking her pulse, Kierce materialized with an update. “Aretha is on the way.”

“What about the hospital?”

“Aretha believes Lucia stands a better chance of survival with more flexible healing services, given the various attributes of her bloodline.” He stroked my hair. “She’s bringing a coven, so there will be many healers present with specialties treating different factions.”

“You went straight to her.”

“I considered the hospital, but then I recalled Lucia is a mercenary. There might be people searching for her.”

“And people with that kind of reach would be scanning hospital records for anyone matching her description.” I caught his hand. “That was a brilliant move on your part.”

A deep flush climbed his neck, singeing his cheeks until the tips of his ears burnt red.

“I need to...” I groaned when it hit me. “I brought the phone to Abaddon.”

Josie’s phone was as fried as mine had been, rendering it useless to me.

“It’s all right.” He brushed my sweaty hair off my forehead.

“I visited Matty before I returned to you. He will drive the wagon to the shop. I located Josie and Carter and told them to come as well.” The edges of his mouth twitched once.

“Matty broke Harrow’s nose for letting you go through the portal, but your brother agreed to give him a ride here since Harrow woke me as soon as you left to go after you. ”

“Poor Harrow.” I slid my gaze back to Lucia. “Can we do anything else?”

“We shouldn’t move her again until Aretha gets a look at her.”

Just because her wounds were closing on the outside didn’t mean the inside was finished healing.

The real damage would be hidden in her bones and organs, and only a med-witch could see the true extent of her injuries.

As much as I wanted to hold her hand or offer her comfort, exhaustion gnawed on me.

I was spent. I had nothing left. I couldn’t lift my arm if I wanted to reach for her.

The struggle was real, holding my eyes open long enough for the others to arrive.

“I wanted to set you free.”

Oh, yeah. I was hanging on by a thread if I was doing this now. I hadn’t meant to open my big mouth.

“You did.” He gathered me against his chest. “And, as long as Dis Pater is confined, I can’t be used against you.”

“Are you sure?” I lifted my head, a minor miracle, forcing myself to search his face. “You want to stay with me? You could go anywhere, do anything. You could start over. Have a life.”

“I’ve never been more certain.” A smile broke across his face. “A quiet life with you would be heaven.”

“Fair warning. Life with me will never be quiet. On account of us Marys all living together.”

“As long as I never have to play dress up with Josie again, I can handle it.”

“There’s one more thing.” I owed him the absolute truth before he signed on for life. “I don’t plan on using these new powers outside of protecting the Alcheyvāhā.”

“I can respect that.”

“Except for one little thing, I don’t plan to meddle in the divine.”

“Oh?”

“You told me the spirits that come for me when my temper spikes wouldn’t stop until I figured out what they wanted from me.

Ithas kept displays of full Alcheyvāhā skeletons in his home like it was a museum.

There was no hauling them out of there, so I cremated them.

Each time one of the beasts turned to ash, another voice fell silent.

That makes me think there are more of the Alcheyvāhā’s bones out there, outside the burial grounds where they belong, and I want to grant them release too. For Anunit.”

As her loss swept through me again, I wiped a knuckle under my eye, happy to accept Kierce’s embrace to steady me.

“Otherwise, all I want is to go home, be with my family, work at The Body Shop, and get back to leasing bodies to souls with afterlife to-do lists.” Biting the inside of my cheek, I screwed up my courage to find out his plans. “What will you do about the Viduus thing?”

“I have no plans to meddle in the divine,” he repeated my line back to me. “I am happy to retire the title.”

Hair sliding into his eyes, Kierce leaned down, his breath caressing my lips, but I slapped a hand over his mouth.

“We’re not kissing until after I brush my teeth.” I cuddled against him. “Even though I really, really want to remind myself how you taste.” I breathed him in. “God, it’s good to be home.”

“Home is wherever you are, Frankie.” A low growl moved through his chest into mine, and he chuckled as I fisted his shirt. “Never forget that.”

Nestled against him, my eyelids threatened to fall shut, but glaring headlights perked me up again.

A half dozen vehicles pulled into the parking lot, and women spilled out in a flurry of chatter. Witches by the incense and herb smell of them. One or two carried bright-red bags with white crosses in the center. The rest carried leather bags or ratty backpacks overflowing with supplies.

As soon as she spotted me, Aretha enveloped me in a hug as best she could, considering Kierce didn’t yield an inch. And if a rumble from Kierce forced her to glare at him in warning, well, I was too happy to fuss about him feeling possessive.

“Get Frankie upstairs to her room.” Aretha nodded to herself. “I’ll perform a more thorough exam once we’ve stabilized the critical patient, but I’m willing to bet the best medicine for Frankie will be sleep.”

Without another word, Kierce scooped me up and began climbing the stairs to my apartment.

I meant to tell him to hang back, to let the witches use Josie’s apartment so they had a bed to treat Lucia on, but the gentle sway in his arms lulled me into a dreamless sleep where even Matty couldn’t have found me.