Page 6 of Ride or Die (The Body Shop #5)

N arrow as the trail was, we broke into pairs to fit better. I was smug when Anunit chose me over Harrow as her companion, which left me questioning when I had become jealous of their bond. Then I figured he probably thanking his lucky stars she hadn’t picked him, so it all worked out in the end.

“What did Ankou wish to tell you?” Her whiskers flexed back and forth, her nose quivering. “When he got you away from the Harrow?”

The Harrow was an upgrade from this body , her former nickname for him, but she could still do better.

“Ankou claims Kierce is a god killer but that he doesn’t remember having that power.”

“There is much your consort cannot recall, and his power is vast.” She dipped her head.

“It would explain why Dis Pater is content to possess one vassal when most gods keep many. That power would make your consort unrivaled among his peers, but holding on to him would require every ounce of Dis Pater’s strength and focus.

And that is with Kierce unaware of that power, if he does in fact wield it. ”

Pretty sure if Kierce knew he was a god killer, he would have slaughtered Dis Pater after he killed me in the train shed.

But Dis Pater enjoyed scrambling Kierce’s brains, so…I couldn’t rule anything out yet.

The topic of god killing spun my thoughts toward another topic I had always taken care to avoid. But, if it could connect dots between Kierce and this potential ability, I had to know. “Can I ask you something?”

“You wish to know how my people died out.” Her weary tone conveyed an expectation this question would surface between us sooner or later. “What have you been told?”

“Kierce told me the gods of men hunted the Alcheyvāhā to extinction.”

“He is not wrong, but there is more to the story.”

“Will you tell me?”

“As mankind rose to power, animals became their prey. And, over time, the gods of men grew stronger.” Her claws dug into the rock, flexing with her temper.

“They grew stronger than us, and they wanted the divine beasts to bow to them. They sought to tame us, domesticate us, treat us as pets, but we refused to lose our wildness.”

To show my support the only way I could, I rested my hand on her spine.

“One of the new gods, a god of the hunt, saw the beauty in divine beasts. He befriended the Alcheyvāhā in an effort to forge goodwill between his kin and ours and, after many years, he came to live among us. Decades passed in relative peace, and he fell in love with a female named Dinorah.” She closed her eyes.

“He mated her, in the way of our people, but his kin refused to honor the bond. Instead, they claimed he was lying with beasts, despite Dinorah adopting a human form to be with him.” Her eyes opened on me.

“So, he broke ties with his kin, denounced his title, and stayed among the Alcheyvāhā with his mate.”

For a brief moment, a tickle in the back of my mind attempted to supply a name for the god of the hunt, but it was there and gone too fast for me to grasp it.

The fact she hadn’t spoken his name once hinted at a wealth of pain behind the word she couldn’t bring herself to say.

I wanted to press her for it, to relieve that mental itch, but I couldn’t when her gaze remained hollow. “What happened to them?”

“The gods swore revenge for the shame he had brought upon them.” Her claws flexed as she relived those dark memories.

“A year later, they invited him to dine with them, to make amends. He went, believing he could put an end to the animosity, but they came for Dinorah while he was away.” An exhale flared her nostrils.

“They killed her in her sleep and stole her left femur to hone into a blade.”

“They used the bone blade to kill the Alcheyvāhā.” A chill seeped into my skin as the truth sank into me. “What did the god of the hunt do after he learned what had been done to Dinorah?”

“He was taken by his family. Most believe he ended his own life while in their custody.” Her eyes glistened with tears. “To live without her was more than he could bear.”

There was more I wanted to know, like how a bone killed the old gods, but the story had hit her hard. I should have let it drop then, given her a moment to compose herself, but I blurted out, “You knew her.”

“She was my daughter,” Anunit rasped before padding away.

Part of me wished I had never asked her to reopen this wound, but I hadn’t known the cut ran so deep. To protect their legacy, I would have to first learn their history, but I could have let her come to me.

With two leaps, she was out of sight, gone to patrol ahead, leaving me to trudge on alone.

We took a break underneath an overhang about the time my legs were ready to fall off my body.

Though Harrow avoided using his magic, he set aside his usual moral quandaries to conjure a ring of fire that burnt along the perimeter, preventing uninvited guests from dropping in for a visit while we were resting up for the last big push to reach Kierce.

The timing of his arrival in Abaddon, and the smoking lizard carcass, no doubt played a role in his willingness to cast a protective spell.

“We ought to be safe here for an hour.” Harrow plopped down on a rock next to the one I had claimed as my seat.

“I can keep the fire burning until then, and that’s deterrent enough for most predators.

” His gaze drifted across the camp to the rock where Ankou sat with his back facing us, staring into the dancing flames.

“The biggest threat might already be in here with us.”

That particular threat was pouting because his evil scheme had failed, forcing him to honor his word and stick with us to fulfill his end of the bargain before I entertained the idea of freeing him.

Though how he expected me to break his chains if I didn’t even know where they were anchored baffled me.

Ankou had never told me the name of his god. As far as I knew, he couldn’t share it. I had to speak it, and then he could confirm it. That was how it had gone so far with identifying gods.

“I can’t argue with that logic.” Josie craned her neck, searching behind us. “Where did Carter go?”

“To the little redcap’s room.” He bit into his sandwich with an appreciative noise. “She’ll be back in?—”

“I’m not missing this.” She shot to her feet. “I have dreams about her cute little booty?—”

“She’s peeing, you pervert.” I hooked a finger through her belt loop and hauled her back down onto the rock. “If she wanted you to see her naked butt, she would have shown you her naked butt by now.”

“You’re no fun.” She stuck out her bottom lip. “I just wanted to catch a glimpse.”

“How is it okay for you to stalk her,” Ankou wondered, “but it was wrong for me to stalk you?”

The big difference being, in my humble opinion, that Josie’s style was in your face .

Carter was well aware she was the object of my sister’s obsession.

There was no lying, no lurking, and no lame excuses for Josie acting like, well, Josie.

Any time Carter wanted her to stop, really give up and move on, she could put an end to it, and Josie would respect her boundaries.

Sure, she might eat her weight in chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. And yeah, she would most likely bake until her stove’s heating elements cried uncle and her fruit trees were bare. But she wouldn’t pursue Carter if she gave her an unequivocal no .

“The difference is she knows who and what I am, knows I want in her pants, and knows I’m desperate enough to do just about anything to get there.” Josie bumped her chin higher. “And I want her for her, not because some random god told me to seduce her.”

“How about we each pick up a sandwich,” I suggested, “shove it in our mouths, and stop talking?”

“I remember this game.” Josie rolled her eyes. “You made Matty and me play it when we were kids.”

“Kids?” I thumped her ear. “I made y’all play it like a month ago.”

Shortly before Dis Pater went out of his way to snatch the soul right out of our brother.

“I remember too.” Harrow wiped his mouth. “That and you standing them in corners for time-outs.”

Old as my siblings had been at the time, they should have aged out of such punishments, but no.

I doubted Josie and Matty would ever outgrow terrorizing one another with the special brand of love only siblings could provide.

Which meant I would still be at this when we were so old I had to push their wheelchairs into corners and throw on the parking brakes to separate them.

Ah, yes. The perils of being young semi-immortals. Maturity took its sweet time arriving for some factions. Pretty sure it had gotten lost on the way to find these two.

A shrill whistle drew Harrow to his feet, and he rose. “I need to let Carter in.”

“I’ll be here,” Josie grumbled, kicking dirt. “Mourning lost opportunities.”

While he wrangled his magic, I claimed Josie’s sandwich and called out to Ankou, “Are you hungry?”

During the time we had known Armie, he never exhibited the dietary restrictions of Kierce.

His cover had been as a shifter of undetermined species, and he played up the predator stereotype.

Boisterous. Amorous. Carnivorous. I wasn’t sure if he required that volume of food or if it had all been an act to fool us.

Regardless, he expressed interest earlier, and I wanted to keep him on my good side.

Well, as good as it was going to get between us.

“I could eat.” He caught the sandwich and a precious bottle of water. “Thanks.”

“I would say thank Josie, since she’s the one who made the sandwiches, but that seems like begging her to punch your teeth in.” I crumpled up my wrapper and tossed it in the flames. “How are we doing?”

“We’re making good time.” He tore into his meal with gusto. “Despite the detour.”

“And when we hit Dis Pater’s corner of Abaddon?” Harrow returned with Carter in tow. “Then what?”