by Ivy Asher
“I am here to save you,” I declare, my voice dropping in pitch for some reason, and I hear Crux and Jerif snicker behind me. “You guys are going to feel so dumb if that works,” I tell them imperiously. I turn back to the flaming Gate. Nothing.
Well, crap, they’re never going to let me live that down.
I try waving my hands, and I’m almost ready to do a little ditty in case the Hellgate is a fan of a good song and dance, but I decide to save that for when I get really desperate.
I look from the Gate to my scythe, studying them both.
“Ah ha!” I exclaim.
My scythe is dormant right now, so maybe I need to activate it. “Queen of Hearts,” I command, “...do your thing!” I hold it out and watch my Swiss Army scythe reveal its sharp blades. I hold it up to the Gate again, but the doors still refuse to acknowledge my existence.
“Do you think Nefta meant key literally?” I ask.
Crux looks up at the doors and scratches the short blond scruff on his jaw. “I don’t see a keyhole…”
I bite my lip in thought as I run my gaze over the flickering red flames.
Ahh, fuck it.
I take a few strides back, and then in my best Olympic javelin thrower impression, aim to chuck my scythe at the door, straight blade first. I get all medieval and spear throwy, but maybe this bitch wants it a little rough. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t be one to judge.
The guys all call out their protest as I release my hold on my scythe and subsequently throw it at the Hellgate, but it’s entirely too late by then. I watch in the way you do after you’ve bowled a ball to see how many pins get knocked over. I’m surprised when my aim is true, because the straight blade of the scythe sinks into the flames, and then a loud thunk fills the cavernous space all around us.
We all hold our breath to see if the flames are going to incinerate the weapon, but it seems to be okay… Until the flames blink out on the Gate all together. One moment, it’s burning Hellishly, and the next, it’s out like a light, as if I just went at the thing with a Hell Flame extinguisher.
Well, double fuck!
“Shit, shit, shit,” I curse, panic widening my eyes and making my heart flip over and faceplant against my chest.
We all rush forward like the Gate’s an injured animal, and I’m surprised to see that under all the flames, there is an actual door. I’m not stoked to realize that it’s made of bones of some sort, but we all make decorating mistakes in life. Just look at what happened with wall paper borders.
My scythe sticks out of the front of the massive bone doors, wobbling a little, as if I put too much heat behind the throw and it’s still trying to recover from the force of impact.
Iceman runs his eyes over the massive doors like he doesn’t know what to do. “Maverick, you need to fix this now. It’s almost as if you somehow turned it off completely. Anyone can get through right now,” Iceman warns me, and the fact that it’s him sounding really concerned makes my panic spike up.
“I don’t know how!” I exclaim, searching the door for some kind of clue, as if a bony hand is going to reach out and slap me across the face and be like, it’s right there, lady!
“Why would you fucking spear it?” Jerif snaps.
“I don’t know!” I shout back, sinking my hands into my hair and pulling at the strands. “It just seemed like a good idea at the time!”
“The Gate is weakened, Delta. It’s sick. You don’t stab sick things,” he retorts.
My whole face feels hot and flushed with both panic and anger. “Well, you did the chucking the spear thing earlier and gave me the idea, so it’s partially your fault!”
He tosses his arms up in exasperation. “How the hell is this my fault?”
Echo’s hand presses against my mouth as I try to argue some more, my words instantly getting muffled by his palm. His chest presses up against my side, and he gives me a nip to my ear. “Ignore Jerif. He gets mean when he’s scared.”
The lava demon shoots him a withering glare. “I am not scared.”
I feel Echo’s mouth curve against my temple before he drops his hand. “Breathe, Delta. This is your legacy. We have full faith that you can fix this.”
Feeling only slightly bolstered, I nod and try to figure this the fuck out.
Come on, ancient demon Annulus bloodline, help a dumb newbie out!
As though my silent plea was actually heard, my eyes rest upon skulls scattered in several places throughout the doors. On each one, there appears to be some kind of writing along the foreheads. Stepping closer, I discover that the writing is more hieroglyphic looking than words, but something about it feels familiar.
I can feel tension from the guys at my back, but I also feel their support and faith that I can figure this out. When I’m right in front of one of the skulls, I reach out and brush my finger across its marking that resembles my scythe. The moment the pad of my finger comes in contact with it, a rush of images bombards me.
Instantly, it’s as though I’m watching a movie that only I can see. I watch as Abdicated fill the caverns of this realm and start to build. They establish Hell rock by rock, laying down everything it would be responsible for. I witness battles occurring over time, while winners rise and the losers get set upon by Annuli just like me to reset the balance.
I get a front row seat to the work that Nefta mentioned we were created to do, and then I get a front row seat at the Hellgate being built. An Annulus with stunning blood-red hair and wings to match stands before the completed bone gate and slashes her hand. She presses it to the skulls—the same marked skulls I saw in the doors. She goes to each one, and every time, she closes her eyes as though she’s praying or doing some sort of ritual. After she’s touched the last one with her bloodied palm, she steps back, and in a whoosh of heat and fire, flames suddenly crawl up the bones as the Gate comes alive.
As I watch, the red-haired Annulus turns around, and it’s like she’s looking right at me. She’s so close that if this were real and not just a vision, I’d be able to reach out and touch her. She offers a knowing smile at me that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. And then, just like that, it’s all over, and I’m once again just staring at the gate, all the memories of the past gone, my palm still pressed to the skull.
A smile takes over my face, and a thank you comes from my soul, both directed at the bones for showing me the way.
I turn to the guys with a wide grin. “I know what to do.”
Their answering smiles anchor my soul and fill me with heat, and I turn back around to face the Gate with newfound confidence. This is my legacy. This is what I was created for. I got this.
I walk over to the curved blade of my scythe and run the palm of my hand against the sharp concave line of it, making one of the guys suck in a breath behind me. But I focus on my task, watching as blood immediately pools in my palm. I move to the skull all the way to the left and quickly press my palm against it. Thank fuck the Annulus who did this before wasn’t too tall, or that would’ve sucked to need a step stool. Luckily, these skulls were arranged where I’m able to reach them easily.
I close my eyes just like the other Annulus did, and gratitude washes through me. Thank you for your sacrifice and for showing me the way, I tell the skull, in what I can only explain as pure instinct. When warmth kisses my hand, I pull it back and move on to the next skull in the sequence. I share my blood and thanks to each one on this door before heading to the other one on the opposite side and working through those as well.
With the remaining drops of blood leaking out, I place my hand on the last skull and thank it for the purpose it’s serving and the protections it offers. When I feel the warmth greet me for a final time, I open my eyes and step away. A sense of peace and rightness moves through me, and I reach up and yank my scythe out of the bones of the door before stepping back as the guys return to my side, and we all watch the Gate with bated breath.
“Do you feel that?” Jerif asks the others, his voic
e bleeding awe, and I smile serenely because I do.
It feels like healing.
We watch as my blood soaks into the bones, and just as the last drop disappears on the last skull, the Hellgate ignites anew, and it’s better than before. Stronger.
Happiness washes over me as my face splits into a grin, and my eyes take on a wet sheen. I can practically feel the pride of the Annuli who came before me, as the Gate once again springs to life.
And look, it’s my favorite color...purple.
A breeze flits past me, playing with my wings and lifting my hair like it’s a teasing little minx. I spin on a laugh, and then my mouth drops in complete awe. The Gate isn’t the only thing that’s different.
“Whoa…”
One third of the long cavern that runs from the mausoleum to the Hellgate is now covered in grass, trees, flowers, and other plants. The whole left stretch of it seems to have just come alive. The once vast, empty, and sinister space is now bursting with greenery and life on that side, and butterflies flit happily from one bloom to another.
“What the hell?” I ask, completely dumbfounded. “Why did Hell’s Embrace just get its own Garden of Eden?”
“No idea,” Crux says, just as surprised as I am.
“Of course you’d put flowers all over Hell’s otherwise ominous entrance,” Jerif snarks. “You’re such a girl.”
I roll my eyes at him. “I’m totally telling Alder you said that,” I tease, and he narrows his eyes at me.
“You better not,” he mumbles, and I laugh, knowing he doesn’t want that demon blowing any scary ass flower pollen on him.
Echo disappears into the shadows again while we all stare around in wonder at the Hell garden. When he abruptly reappears in front of me again, I try to play off the jump by turning it into a weird little bounce, like I’m too excited about Hell’s new greenery not to move around, but Echo’s smile tells me he’s not falling for it.
“About a third of the Hell side mausoleum looks like this enchanted forest now,” he reveals, and we all look at the entrance located at the opposite end of the new electric-violet Hellgate.
“I wonder why only part of the space went green and not all of it?” Iceman observes curiously, and I look around at the black rock and dirt packed entryway that’s still free and clear.
“Maybe I didn’t do something right?” I declare, making a note to ask Nefta the next time I see her.
“No, the Gate definitely feels better than it ever has before. You got that right. We can feel it,” Iceman reassures me, and the other Guardians all nod in agreement.
I throw him a happy smile and move to wrap my arms around him. “Well, hopefully the gate will be better now, because I think we’re all due for some rest and relaxation,” I declare as Iceman wraps an arm around my shoulders.
“What do you say we get you packed up and moved into our place? Then we can rest and relax all you want,” Iceman suggests, and I don’t miss the hint of other kinds of suggestion in his tone.
Heat immediately shoots right through me and settles deliciously low in my stomach.
He gives me a knowing look. “You up for this one, Maverick?” he asks, quoting a line from the movie I picked our nicknames from.
I laugh.
“Just a walk in the park, Kazansky,” I reply, finishing the Top Gun line. “Let’s turn and burn!”
26
“Ugh, this is the worst.”
I’m sitting cross-legged in my bedroom, surrounded by plastic trash bags and a couple of cardboard boxes.
Echo shoots me an amused look. “It’s not that bad,” he says. “It’s not like you have to pack up the whole house. You’re leaving all the furniture and kitchen things. You just have to get your clothes and toiletries.” He toes one of the dozens of trash bags that are littering my bedroom floor with a slight frown on his face. “Although...I didn’t realize you had so many damn clothes. You’re always wearing the same three outfits.”
I grab a pile of the clothes I’m going through in my dresser and chuck them at his face, but he manages to catch them all before they hit him. “It’s not my fault life has been so crazy that I couldn’t change my clothes every day. And now I have these, which makes picking out an outfit even harder,” I say, pointing at my wings. We had to shift inside my house and close all the curtains so that none of the neighbors would see my new feathered accessories.
I need to get working on how to ward myself, like yesterday.
Echo snorts and then looks at the clothes I threw at him. Stuck to one of my knit sweaters, he finds a purple lacy thong that comes away with a crackle of static electricity. His brow arches as he drops the rest of the clothes and balances the thong on his finger. “These are definitely going in the pack pile.”
“What is?” Crux asks, appearing next to him in a blink. He just finished bringing my must-have snacks from the kitchen over to the mansion.
Echo holds up my panties to him. “These,” he says helpfully.
Crux’s blond brows raise up. “Sexy,” he says, grabbing them from Echo’s hands so he can hold them up at a better angle. “How come you haven’t worn this stuff for us before?”
“Because all of my clothes have been here,” I say with exasperation as I jump to my feet. “Hand them over,” I tell him, doing grabby hands.
Crux grins. “I think I’d rather hold on to them.”
I reach up and snatch them from his hands, my cheeks slightly pink. “Aren’t you supposed to be popping these bags out for me?” I ask pointedly.
Crux and Echo share a look. “Mmm, she gets bossy when she’s embarrassed,” Crux muses.
Rolling my eyes, I stop Crux before he picks up the bags next to Echo’s feet. “Not those ones. Can you take the ones across the room? Those are all for Goodwill.”
Crux sighs. “Why do I have to drop them off and be forced to walk amongst the mortals?” he says with a petulant tone that makes me giggle.
“You have to walk amongst the mortals because you look the most human out of all of us,” I remind him. “And the other guys need to recharge a bit more before they can ward and handle possible trouble.”
“Echo looks human,” he argues.
We both look over at Echo, whose shadow tattoos are moving all around his skin like they’re head banging to some music we can’t hear. Crux frowns. “Fine, maybe not him. But Jerif could pass as a human.”
“Jerif has orange eyes and hair that looks like it caught on fire. Plus, he’s grumpy. He’ll probably make the people at Goodwill cry for no reason other than looking at them with that glare he has.”
Crux tilts his head. “Yeah, that’s probably true.”
“Time to face facts, Crux,” Echo tells him with a smirk. “You’re the most basic out of all of us. Even Delta, now that she has those pretty wings.”
At hearing him call them pretty, my wings immediately flare out and start to shimmy a little. I shake my head at them. They have no concept of subtle.
“I don’t look that human,” Crux insists before sticking out his long forked tongue and showing off his piercings as if to prove a point. “Thseee?” he lisps.
“I do like that tongue,” I tell him with a coy smile as I remember all the things it can do to me. I walk over to him and place a kiss on his cheek. I know he’s sensitive about how human he looks. If I had to guess, he probably got teased about it a lot when he was growing up.
“Damn right you do,” he says.
“Yep,” I nod. “I like your tongue as much as I like the rest of the way you look,” I tell him before giving him another kiss, this time on the other cheek.
He narrows his green eyes. “You’re buttering me up.”
I smile. “Is it working?”
He sighs. “Yeah.”
“Thanks, Crux,” I tell him, patting him on the back.
“Yeah, thanks, Crux,” Echo says with a shit-eating grin.
Crux punches him in the arm before turning and grabbing the bags and the box of shoes I�
��m also donating and piles them into his arm. He gives me a pointed look. “I get to lick you later.”
I hold up my hands in surrender, because I’m a martyr like that. “Okay, okay, you win,” I say with a cheeky grin.
He nods tersely like he just came out victorious in this round, but we all know I’m the real winner here.
In a blink, he disappears, leaving Echo to grab the bags of clothes I’m keeping. He looks down at them with a frown as he balances eight full bags. “Damn, we might need to build you a bigger closet.”
I walk back over to the dresser and grab the last drawer, dumping the entire thing into a bag. I was going through each one and deciding what to give away and what to keep, but I lost my mojo and now I just want to be finished. “Don’t be silly, I’ll just infiltrate all of your closets. It’s more relationshipy that way.”
“Relationshipy?” he teases as he picks up the last bag for me.
“Yep.”
“That sounds like an excellent plan.”
His tone makes me pause, and I look over at my shadow demon. “You’re going to keep all my underwear in your room, aren’t you?”
His teeth flash in a devilish grin. “Yep.”
He disappears in a blink, and I snort and shake my head.
“What’s funny?”
I look up to find Iceman in the doorway. “Hey you,” I smile as I walk over to him. I don’t even have to step and weave anymore, since the guys cleared out all the last of the bags and boxes. “What were you doing?”
“I went back to the mansion to drop off Fern and to give Strut your list of things you like to eat. And Jerif and I are working on something, so I had to help him real quick.”
“Oh, what are you working on?” I press, curious.
“Secret things,” he teases before leaning down and kissing the top of my head. I tilt my head back to look up at him. “I also called your next-door neighbor, Maria. We worked out an agreement. For a monthly stipend, she’s going to watch the house while you’re not here, to make sure nothing happens to it while you’re away.”
