by K. F. Breene
Boman, at Kieran’s immediate left, stepped around him to pull out a chair for her.
“Greetings,” she said, then her face scrunched up and turned red. He couldn’t contain his smile. “Hi, I mean. Hello.”
“Miss Alexis Price, I presume?” Nancy said, resting her elbows on the table and smiling pleasantly.
Bria waltzed in behind Alexis and peeled off to stand at the wall. If she felt underdressed in a room full of people dressed in tailored suits and high fashion, she didn’t show it.
“Yes. Hi—llo. Hello.” Alexis bustled toward Nancy, her movements graceful despite her flustered state. That was from her physical training, something Nancy surely hadn’t done in over a hundred years.
She bent to take Nancy’s hand, obviously confused as to why Nancy had stayed seated. He purposely hadn’t told her anything about the constant, covert one-upmanship of Demigods. It had been a risk, but now he was damned glad. Alexis’s slip of unchecked confusion made it seem like she thought Nancy didn’t have enough status to continue sitting. Not while Kieran was standing, at any rate.
The way Nancy’s lips curved downward said she’d caught the meaning.
“This is Demigod Nancy of Ontario,” Kieran said to cover the moment. “She’s gracing us with her presence. You’ll remember, of course, that Nancy is a Demigod of Hermes.”
“Ah. Yes, of course.” Alexis took her seat, allowing the rest of the table to sit after her. Her blank face said she didn’t have a clue what Hermes was known for. She was the most unknowledgeable magical person he’d ever met. At the moment, it was hilarious, but it would be a problem if they were ever in a more powerful person’s presence. He’d need to help her work on that.
“Her line knows their way around the spirit world,” he went on.
“Oh, awesome,” she said, nodding, a sparkle in her eyes. “So you share that with the Hades Demigods, then.”
Thunderclouds rolled across Nancy’s face.
“Forgive her, Your Excellency,” Bria said with a placating smile. “I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but her mother raised her in the dual-society zone to protect her. Thank God, am I right? But she wasn’t given much of a magical education. I’ll just give her a little history so we’re all on the same page, shall I?” Without waiting for the go-ahead, Bria edged down the wall so she could better see Alexis. “Hermes isn’t as strong as the top three gods—Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. So while she is topnotch at zipping through the spirit world on an errand of some kind, she doesn’t have as much control or power as someone from Hades’s line.” Bria shrugged, and Kieran knew she understood every ounce of the shade she was throwing Nancy’s way. “But wow would she be useful training you up. All you need is a nudge, after all, and she could definitely provide that.”
“Bria, that’s enough,” Kieran said. She walked a fine line. He could handle Nancy if she took offense and retaliated, but he didn’t want to burn that bridge. One day he wanted the option to buy her swing vote.
“Of course, sir. Sorry, sir.” Feigning chastisement, Bria straightened up and closed her mouth.
“I apologize, Demigod Nancy,” Kieran said. “Bria has done a remarkable job with Alexis’s training so far, being a level-five Necromancer, but she hasn’t worked under a Demigod before. She’s rusty on the correct way of doing things.”
Nancy’s lips were tight and her expression pinched. “Yes, of course. And…Alexis is a Spirit Walker, correct? I haven’t been hearing tall tales?”
“She is, yes. The genuine article.” Kieran bent his head in a slight bow. Alexis mimicked it awkwardly, and he nearly busted up laughing.
“I see. And do we have…proof?” Nancy pushed. Bria smirked.
“Alexis?” Kieran said, wondering how she’d deliver the proof. The normal protocol would be to pick the weakest member of the present staff and deliver a quick, sharp punch of power to get the point across.
Alexis didn’t know protocol. On purpose.
Her face turned red again and she tilted toward Kieran. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Demigod Nancy wants assurance of what you can do. I think we can give her that, don’t you?”
Bria’s smile widened. She knew what was coming.
A heady blast of power filled the room, a quick slice through everyone’s midsections. Kieran’s people clenched their teeth and clamped down, bearing it. They’d had practice. Nancy’s people didn’t fare so well.
Screams and wails filled the space. Two people flung themselves back from the table, falling over their chairs and scrambling to their feet. Bria jogged to the door, flinging it open in time for one of the two, a young man, to run out in a blind panic.
That was the staff member to lean on for intel. He would be the easiest to crack.
Kieran glanced at Henry and saw he had already read the situation.
Nancy’s face had gone white. She must have thought her power as a Demigod of Hermes would protect her from Alexis’s magic.
“That’s enough, Alexis,” Kieran said softly, schooling his expression to one of mild impatience. It would make Alexis seem like a rogue warrior, barely kept on a leash. Dramatics were good for a first encounter with a mediocre-status Demigod. A player had to play the game.
Alexis’s power drained away, leaving sniveling or shocked silence in its wake. Nancy stared at him with wide eyes.
“Should we continue?” he asked in an easy tone.
She gulped and nodded quickly. “Y-yes, of course. Her power has been verified. She is as you say, Demigod Kieran.”
Just like that, Kieran had the upper hand. Now all Kieran had to do was charm her into revealing her secrets. His father had taught him well, and his mother’s magic gave him a…potent arsenal.
Magnus
“Demigod Magnus, it was… She was…” Nancy’s voice drifted away, letting silence hang on the phone line.
“She was genuine,” Magnus said, adjusting the draping of his silk robe as he crossed a leg over his knee. Lamplight glowed softly around him in the interior chamber of his bedroom. He sat on his couch with a bookmarked novel on the cushion next to him. Her meeting with the child Demigod had taken a break while the Spirit Walker was released, giving her a few moments for a quick call.
“Yes,” Nancy breathed out, proving why she was mostly useless in all things political. She got worked up much too easily.
“Spirit Walker, level five,” Magnus prompted, as though there were any other level for such a power.
“Yes. The feeling of it… It’s like it reached down into my very center and exposed me to the elements. Like I was entirely vulnerable to her whims. You can’t protect yourself, even if you tried, with that magic. No one could.”
Magnus sighed softly and leaned back, fighting annoyance. Of course he could protect himself. The girl was a level five, not a Demigod. Her power might compare to his within the spirit realm, but it had limitations. The child Demigod had taken down his father with the Spirit Walker’s help, not the other way around. She was a tool. A dangerous, exceptional, rare-beyond-belief tool, but a tool all the same. She was still only a level five.
“What of the child?” Magnus asked, clearly needing to steer the conversation.
“Kieran?”
So she was using his first name, no title. That meant one of three things: she was intrigued by him, starting to respect him, or had already taken him to her bed. She wasn’t one to shrug away a pretty face, and not many Demigods said no to another of their kind, regardless of whether they’d foolishly bestowed their mark on someone.
“Yes,” Magnus replied.
“He is as you expected. New to the job but competent. The write-ups on him are accurate—people greet him with smiles. They respect him, and that respect is not based on fear, from what I could tell. He seems to have things well in hand.”
“Did he give you any indication of his political leanings?”
“No. He was…vague.” She rushed to fill the following silence. “But that was just because
he’s still learning the ropes. He said so. He wants to more aptly understand the issues at hand before he throws his hat in the ring. I think he’ll be a solid ally, I really do. He’s…competent.”
Magnus could hear the lust ringing through her words. Not to mention she sounded like a cheerleader.
So she hadn’t gotten Kieran in bed yet, but she was well and truly charmed. In only half a day. The child was good. He clearly had gifts aplenty from his slippery, fork-tongued father. That was annoying. It would’ve been so much easier had he been incompetent, leaving that little Spirit Walker wide open for the taking.
“Kieran is looking for training for the girl,” Nancy went on. “She has come quite far, as you can imagine, but she doesn’t know anything about walking in the spirit world. She only knows as much as a Necromancer could teach her, plus what she’s figured out for herself. He asked if I had someone on staff that would take that honored role…”
Magnus nearly laughed. Honored role? Oh yes, the little upstart had a decided way with women. That must’ve been how he’d gotten the nuisance from Sydney to help him with his father.
“I told him I didn’t have the resources with me on this trip,” Nancy continued, “but that I would think about it. He offered a trade, although he wasn’t specific. I got the feeling it was a future favor, and that could be…useful, given his father’s placement in the order of Demigods.”
Magnus shook his head and looked at the ceiling. The kid didn’t have a platform or any alliances. He was stepping into the Demigod arena with a stolen territory. At this moment, he was nothing. It was the girl everyone wanted, but anyone with half a brain knew either Magnus or Aaron had sired her. They wouldn’t stick their noses in until it was clear who they’d make an enemy of, basically, when they moved in to snatch her. That was the only thing giving Magnus a little time to figure out his next move.
It was amazing Nancy had been able to hold her territory for this long. She was as dumb as rocks.
“Give the child someone with a rudimentary knowledge of spirit. Someone that can help just enough to maintain their position, but not so much that they further weaponize her.”
“And the trade?”
He did laugh this time. “Trade for sex, if it pleases you. Otherwise, do this in good faith. A Demigod that puts a mark on his mistress for love is as naive as they come. He’ll think you’re maneuvering for a future alliance.” The gullible made his life so much easier.
In the meantime, he’d send in one of his best, but not in the spirit realm. No, no. He would manage the girl by himself. He needed someone to infiltrate the upstart’s camp. His operation. The very men who were sent to guard him. He needed someone who could move around undetected by even the Spirit Walker. And when the time came, he needed someone good enough to take out the child upstart when he least expected it so Magnus could have full access to the girl.
“There’s one more thing,” Nancy said. She paused.
“Go on,” he barked.
“It wasn’t just her magic I felt in that room. Within my chest, yes, but not swelling around me. She had traces of his magic mixed in with hers, I’m almost positive. They say she took his blood offering, but I’ve never heard of it affecting a person’s magic in such a way. Is that something particular to Hades magic?”
He tapped his fingers against his knee. “No. And you’re sure about this?”
“Yes. Almost positive.”
He paused as his annoyance returned. “Thank you for the information. Send me your choices of tutors. That’ll be all.”
He hung up as she bleated out a question.
Mixing magic was something to do with her type of magic, yes. Something to do with Hades and spirit. But it had nothing to do with sharing blood. No, it came from the sharing of souls.
Memories swirled around him, of a time when he’d been as naive as the upstart. When he’d felt the first sting of love and thought it meant forever. He’d forged a soul connection with the woman, almost by accident. Their magics had entwined, and they’d reveled in sharing each other from within.
Then his greedy son from an ex-lover had set out to tear him down. Tried to take everything that was his, including his lover. When his soul mate had refused the boy’s advances, he’d killed her and her unborn child.
The fires of hell had raged that day, and they’d never been quelled. Not fully. Not even when Magnus had encountered the second sting of love some hundreds of years later. That wild, natural beauty who’d surprised him by quickening his frozen heart. But try as he might, he still couldn’t forget what had happened to him. He’d sworn it would never happen again.
And now here he was.
If we don’t learn from our pasts, what are we?
4
Alexis
Something metallic thunked down on the kitchen island beneath Bria’s cupped hand. Her focus on me was intense as she leaned forward, invading my space. “You heard Nancy—she doesn’t have anyone she can spare. You’re on your own.”
Oh, she was pushing the pocket watch on me again.
I pushed back from the island, still wearing Kieran’s necklace and daydreaming like a lovesick teenager about how I would thank him. So far the options were seduction followed by fervent suction.
Unfortunately, the shadows were just starting to elongate in the afternoon sun—I had a few hours before I’d even get to see him. After I’d reduced the Demigod’s people to mild hysteria, Kieran had given everyone a much-needed break. He’d walked me out to my car, kissed me warmly, told me he loved me, and asked me to wish him luck. It meant he was going to try to get one over on his visitor. I had complete faith in him. One thing he’d inherited from his father was the ability to manipulate. But while everyone had suspected it of Valens, Kieran was still an unknown. None of the experienced Demigods expected him to be smarter than them. It was easier for him to get away with things.
If he wanted Demigod Nancy to send someone to train me, she would.
“First of all, you basically forced Kieran to ask her—”
“I just hinted, is all,” Bria interrupted.
“—and second, I’d just slammed them all with very scary magic. The fact she didn’t sprint for the hills was a miracle in itself. Any answers she gave after that probably weren’t the result of careful meditation.”
“What are we talking about?”
Daisy strolled in sucking a lollipop. Her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and she had on a pair of black sweats and a white shirt over a sports bra. It was her post-training look, even though she’d been off for a couple hours. Given she apparently planned on single-handedly bankrupting Kieran using the credit card he’d given her, this was not usual. Also, we were long overdue for a talk about using other people for their material possessions. We weren’t scraping by anymore. Things had changed. I’d always thought the saying “more money, more problems” was stupid, but here we were.
Bria pulled her hand away from the watch. “I was just telling Alexis that, seeing as Demigod Nancy doesn’t want to lend someone to train her, she needs to bring the last Soul Stealer’s spirit back across the Line to help her.”
“Like I said, give Kieran time. He’ll work on Nancy, just you wait,” I replied.
“Why don’t you want to call up that last guy?” Daisy asked, taking a chair next to Bria.
“Because he is damn powerful, and I might not be able to control him,” I answered.
“That’s not it.” Bria leaned back and crossed her arms. “It’s because you’re worried that you’ll be forced to control him, and you don’t want to.”
“Well, it is a bit unsavory,” I admitted. “It’s not really fair to interrupt his peaceful existence, drag him back to the world of the living, where his life was probably hell, and then force him to do my bidding.”
Bria spread out her hands. “That’s how it’s done.”
“He was a murderer, right?” Daisy asked.
“He was killed for his crimes,” I res
ponded, knowing where she was going with this.
“Killed, yeah, but was he punished?” she asked.
I lifted my eyebrows. “Punished by death, yes. Being killed was the punishment. It happened. Case closed.”
“Um, really?” She gave me a condescending look. “Last I heard, Spirit Walkers could traverse the land of spirits. He would’ve been comfortable there. So if they killed him, they basically just set his spirit free.”
“Number one, we’re not sure about that. And number two…traverse?” I frowned at her. “Which one of the Six told you that elevating your vocabulary would help you win arguments?”
A crease formed between Daisy’s eyebrows. Bria raised her hand.
“I wasn’t going to rat you out,” Daisy murmured.
“That’s why I got much love,” Bria replied. “But keep at it. It does work, trust me.”
I rolled my eyes and stood. “Kieran will talk Nancy around if anyone can. We don’t need to go for the nuclear option.”
“Are you willing to share him like that?” Bria crossed her arms over her chest.
I paused at the refrigerator. “What do you mean?”
“If Nancy batted her eyelashes any harder, her eyes would’ve gone rolling out of her face. She wants in his pants. And he wants a tutor for you. Sounds like a good pillow-talk sesh to me.”
Anger boiled up in me, uncontrollable. The Line throbbed, immediately present. A gale from the spirit world blew my hair.
Daisy grimaced. “Best not to poke that beehive,” she whispered. “Kieran knows I’ll light his bed on fire if he screws with Lexi. With him in it.”
Bria didn’t look away from me, and her hard expression didn’t crack. “I’ll help you strike the match. And okay, yes, I was being dramatic. I don’t think Kieran would actually insert Tab A into Slot B. Or C, depending on how kinky Nancy is. But you have to understand, Lexi, Demigods operate by different rules. They all have more money, magic, and power than they know what to do with…and they have each other, which is the only thing really preventing them from blowing the walls off. Kieran might not technically cheat, but he’ll feign intimacy to get what he wants. In this particular case, he’ll flirt. He might even run his fingertips in a place you’d rather he didn’t.” Bria put her hands up, probably correctly interpreting the look on my face. “I’m just saying, until he has another means of getting what he wants, through power and position, maybe just do this on your own so he doesn’t need to get that tutor, know what I mean?”
