Page 52 of The Deathless One (The Gravesinger #1)

Walking into the Iron Knuckles’ territory was, she realized, stupid. Even if she had somehow rallied an entire army to walk at her back, this was stupid. But the openings she thought would be there, weren’t. The Iron Knuckles were far more prepared than she’d ever imagined.

As it was, Jessamine was completely alone. At least, as far as they knew.

Elric walked beside her, of course. She could see him perfectly well thanks to their connection, but everyone else would only see the faintest shadow in the reflection of the windows and puddles at their feet.

He wasn’t any happier that she was here, but at the very least, he hadn’t argued this morning.

And when they reached the end of their journey, he watched the sight before them with a narrow-eyed gaze.

Jessamine stood in front of a cramped street that led into shadows, staring down the men who guarded it with their arms crossed.

Tall buildings bracketed them on either side, black monoliths with boarded-up windows and yellow-painted edges that marked them as homes of the infected.

But she didn’t hear any fingernails scratching from the inside—considering the state of the buildings and the windows, she had to wonder if the rumor was true, that no infected had ever been there.

What better place to build a stronghold than in the homes of those no one wished to interact with?

Still, it made the alleyway look like a portal to the darkest depths of madness, where only the infected remained.

The Iron Knuckles had set up barricades in front of the street, which was the first obstacle to carrying out her plan.

Roughly hammered-together two-by-fours that were then wrapped in barbed wire to keep people out.

Or perhaps, considering the brown staining on the tines, to throw people into when necessary.

There was a small gap where people could walk, though.

And that was where two massive men stood.

There was no way for her to get to the other buildings without someone seeing her, even though only two men appeared to be guarding the blockade.

She had no doubt they would shout for help, and then her plan was ruined anyway.

Their features were brutish, but their woolen jackets were relatively new and their trousers were sharply pressed.

Each one wore a hat on top of his head like a pageboy, leading her to wonder if it wasn’t a pageboy hat at all that Benji used to wear.

As always, a small pang struck her in the chest when she thought of the young man she’d killed in cold blood.

She might have to kill more people today.

It made her slightly nauseous even to think about that.

But Elric was right. The path to a throne was coated in blood, and she had to be woman enough to walk through it.

Jessamine had never been very good at thinking on her feet.

She liked to have a plan, but now this plan was ruined, and frankly, she was getting angry.

These men were standing in her way, and she had spent far too much time searching for Callum to be stopped now.

Sneaking wasn’t an option. Finesse had to be tossed out the window.

Clearing her throat, she walked right up to the men. The dead god glared so hard that she could feel the cold, searing disapproval in his eyes.

She could feel it, but she ignored it.

“Gentlemen,” she said as she stopped in front of the two behemoths. “I’m here to see Callum Quen.”

The men looked at each other, surprise evident on their faces. “Callum? We only know him as the Butcher.”

They’d given away more than they realized. But she’d had an inkling that Callum ran this place, and she was quite certain he was inside these streets that were controlled by the Iron Knuckles. They’d confirmed that with just a single sentence.

“So you know him, then?”

The man who had answered frowned at her. His hair was as red as a candle flame, setting him apart from the other, although they did look eerily alike. She assumed they were brothers.

She turned her attention to the man with the slightly cooler-toned brown locks.

“You stupid lout,” the second man growled at his brother before looking at her. “No one goes in or out. That’s what he means.”

“I go in.”

“No, you don’t.”

You’re a queen, she reminded herself. Act like one.

She knew what her mother would do in this situation. The queen had mastered an icy expression that put weak-willed men like this in their place.

Drawing herself up straight, she narrowed her eyes and tried to act like her mother at her most haughty. “Do you not recognize a threat when you see one? I am not some beggar woman who has crept up to your doors and expects you to turn me away. You will let me in.”

“And why the fuck would we do that?” both of them said, almost simultaneously.

Elric leaned against the wall beside them, his arms crossed over his chest. “Exactly, Jessamine. You had better give them a reason or I’ll have to bring you back to life again.”

Breathing deep into her belly, she smiled with what she hoped was an intimidating expression. “Because I’m a witch, gentlemen. And I promise you, you don’t want to get in my way.”

There was a stunned silence after her words before the two men burst out laughing. They laughed so hard that the redheaded one wiped tears from his cheeks. She didn’t move as they let out their mirth, allowing them to have a few final moments.

She wasn’t cruel enough to burst such a bubble of happiness before their lives were about to change forever. Let them laugh.

Elric meandered back to her side, standing behind her as he always did when they cast spells. Though this time, he leaned to murmur in her ear, “Are we finally getting to the bloodbath?”

“I was hoping to avoid it,” she whispered.

He tsked. “You never let me have any fun.”

Jessamine tried very hard not to snort before turning her attention back to the giant men in front of her.

They’d finished laughing and now wore twin expressions of sinister glee. The brown-haired one said, “Oh, I like a funny woman. And I like to show funny women a good time. I think I’ll do that before we rip you apart.”

“Mm, no.” She tapped her lip before nodding. “I think you’re not going to touch me, and you’re going to let me through. That’s your only option, gentlemen.”

She could see their muscles bulging as they both tensed, ready to lunge at her and do whatever it was men like this did. Even Elric stilled behind her, his hand on her shoulder sending power crackling between them.

But then another voice joined theirs in the alley. One filled with so much horror that it snapped through the air like a shock of thunder.

“You?” The voice shook. “It can’t be you. You’re dead !”

Jessamine recognized him. He was the one who had wielded the knife in the alleyway, the one who had plunged it into her belly, and she remembered the look of relief in his eyes.

It was a strange combination of hatred and the knowledge that once she was gone, he would be safe.

She refused to be angry at a man who made choices based on fear, but she could damn well look at him with pity for his folly.

All three of them looked at her now, jaws hanging open and their gazes darting between each other.

“Surprised to see a dead woman walking?” she asked.

One of the brothers nudged the newcomer. “Bones, you must be wrong. This ain’t the girl you killed.”

“It’s definitely the woman I killed,” Bones replied. “I never forget a face, and certainly not one like hers. I remember thinking those hollow eyes had already seen death.”

“Because I have.”

Elric squeezed her shoulder a little too tight. “What is this plan of yours, nightmare?” he whispered.

Her plan? Her plan was to take control. Her entire life, her entire being, had been other people telling her what to do.

This was her moment. This was her gripping life by the throat and saying this is my beast to ride , and she would ride it.

Even if that meant changing who she was and blowing everything to smithereens. It didn’t matter.

Because she was making the choices now, and she would not regret them.

Bones looked at her with those horror-filled eyes and whispered, “How is this possible?”

She met his gaze head-on, without fear. “I am a witch. My patron is the only god left alive. The Deathless One himself. You could stab me a hundred times, a thousand times. You could cut me into tiny pieces and I would come back. My bones are bound to the land of the living. My flesh is seared with violence and revenge. My soul is soaked in blood and haunted by a thousand hallelujahs sung in a church that cries out for their rightful queen. You will not stand in my way.”

To her greatest surprise and pleasure, the man who had killed her stepped aside and barked out an order to the other two.

“Walk the alley of death, then, witch,” he said, quaking with fear. “I will not stand in your way again.”

She didn’t know if it was that she was a queen or a dead woman that made him so afraid, but she knew he would not attack her again. So she walked by him, head held high, as befitted a queen. As she passed, she saw Elric reach out a hand toward the man.

The ghostly shape of his fingers moved through Bones’s face. The man shivered, and she could almost see a small slither of darkness that sank underneath his skin. A warning. Not anything real or powerful or even harmful in any way, but it was very much a warning from a god.

Perhaps it even whispered of a time when the Deathless One would come again. And that this man should run long before that happened.

Jessamine steeled herself for what came next. She had marched into the inner sanctum of a very powerful group of deadly people, but soon enough, they would bow to her.

She still had hope that maybe Callum was an underling like Bones, who had killed for whatever money someone would pay him.

The alley opened up into a central square surrounded by five large buildings. She didn’t think the buildings had originally touched each other, though, but someone had created living spaces in the alleys that had once separated them.

It created a fortress. A tall, five-story fortress built out of metal and wood.

Even the sun had a hard time penetrating the labyrinth here.

But this central area was still trying to thrive.

Plants crumbled to dust under her feet as she walked.

Mildew and rot filled her nose, refuse piled high wherever it had been thrown.

There were plenty of people milling about, their faces all missing the dirt and oil of the factories. These people were infinitely better dressed, well fed, but there was a hunger in their gazes as they watched her. They wanted to attack. They wanted to fight. But why?

“How are you going to find this Callum?” Elric asked, her own personal shadow. “It doesn’t look like he’s here, and they won’t allow you to wander through any of these buildings without an escort. You’ve walked into a hornet’s nest, nightmare. And every single one of them wants you dead.”

“I have a plan,” she muttered.

“Is it to use my magic to flatten these buildings? I understand you think you have control over my power, but you don’t have the knowledge to do this yet.

All that magic running through you so freely might kill you.

You aren’t a conduit. You’re a gravesinger.

” He turned toward her, his brow furrowed with worry.

“And I’m realizing you don’t know the difference. ”

“I don’t.” Jessamine shrugged, knowing she probably looked crazy to anyone who was watching her.

She must seem like she was talking to herself.

“But I have realized that doesn’t matter.

I am angry. And for the first time in my life, I am sitting in this dissatisfaction with no one fixing it for me.

I deserve answers, and I am going to get them for myself. ”

He looked at her with more heat in his eyes than she had seen, even when he was looking up at her from between her thighs.

That expression said he wanted to throw her down in the middle of this courtyard, watchers be damned.

He wanted her so much that it made her squeeze her thighs together and hope that no one realized how affected she was by the god they could not see.

“Where have you been hiding these razor-sharp teeth?” he murmured, then licked his lips and looked her up and down. “I would like to see this side of you more, nightmare. The things I want to do to you when you’re like this are positively evil.”

“You are a creature filled with malice, after all.”

“So are you, I’m finding.”

He was right.

She had fought this side of herself for so long. Everyone had always told her to be the dutiful daughter. The kindhearted princess. The girl who gave more of herself than she took from anyone else. And she refused to be that person any longer.

Today, she was going to take. And that came in the form of turning toward the crowd, lifting her gaze up to the highest building, and screaming at the top of her lungs, “Callum Quen! I have come for you!”

Her scream echoed between the buildings, bouncing back and forth until it erupted out of the top like a volcano. Everyone around her stared as though she had lost her mind.

Maybe she had. But damn, it felt good.

She thought there would be a significant wait before someone stepped forward. But it didn’t take very long at all. Perhaps Bones had run to find Callum.

A door into the third building opened up, and a large man strode out. The silver wings at his temples were so familiar it hurt to look at him, as was the expression on his face, the chiding expression one saved for children when they were misbehaving.

He no longer wore the navy uniform that she’d always seen him in. Instead, he wore a white shirt and a high-collared black jacket. He looked better here, like he fit in more than he ever had in the castle, and that made every hair on her body stand up straight.

The people parted around him like a wave around a stone. They didn’t want to be anywhere near him as he approached. She watched all of this, knowing this was bad. This was so bad.

Elric muttered, “I take it back. This isn’t a hornet’s nest. This is a den of vipers.”

“I think you might be right,” she murmured just as Callum stopped before her, his arms outstretched.

“I was so afraid you were actually dead,” he said. “And now look at you! You’ve come home.”

They were the words she’d wanted to hear since the moment she realized she was going to die. And they were a lie.