She shifted, looked up at him. “Then don’t go.”
His eyes closed, and his forehead lowered to hers, resting there as though exhausted from a long battle. “It’s what I was made for,” he whispered.
“What if you’re wrong? What if you’re meant to be with me?” She was being petulant now, unreasonable, but she didn’t care. She would do anything to keep him safe.
He raised his head, met her gaze, his face a mask of pain. “Do not make me choose. Please.”
But by going, he was choosing – duty, Morana. What he really begged of her was to not make him choose her . Because he would, if she asked him to. She could see it in his eyes. He would choose her over his goddess, over what made him who he was. And that choice would haunt him, tear at him, and he would come to hate her for it.
Her throat constricted, the whole of it ached. This was her heart breaking, shattering into dust, never to be put back together again.
Better to mourn what could have been than to destroy the man she loved.
She released him and stepped back, dashing at the tears spilling down her cheeks. She sat down on the edge of the bed, watched him gather up his clothes, trying to burn the image of him into her memory. If he didn’t return to her, it would be all she had to warm her heart. The heart she’d thought was dead, slaughtered by Jimmy. Until Sokach healed it, made it whole again.
She couldn’t breathe. The air was too hot and thick for her lungs.
“Promise you’ll come back to me,” she demanded even though she knew it was a foolish, pointless request.
He stopped, came to kneel before her. He took her clenched hands in both of his, kissed them. “If I can, I will. Nothing will stop me. I will find you.”
He sounded so earnest. But the coin cutting into her palm said he knew otherwise.
He was gon e . Blue stared down at the shiny disc in her grip. She closed a fist around it, held it to her chest, against her breaking heart. Did silver have any healing properties?
She bolted up, went into the kitchen. She slapped the coin on the counter and set to cleaning up the mess they’d left the night before, trying to let scrubbing dishes and wine stains keep her mind from what was to come.
But it was impossible.
Sokach was walking into a firestorm. And she would lose the only man she’d ever really loved. All for Morana. His devotion to his queen trumped his love for her. With a frustrated cry, Blue threw the plate in her hand at the far wall.
Was this what jealousy felt like? She’d never been scratched by its thorns before. No, this wasn’t about envy; it was about fairness. She and Sokach had each lived hard, loveless lives. They’d paid their dues. Life owed them! God, Sokach would die and Morana wouldn’t even know the sacrifice they’d made for her!
Blue banged a fist on the countertop. Tears welled up again, threatened to overwhelm her.
“No!” She yelled the word in defiance to the fear looming in the shadows of the silent apartment.
She was no coward. She was stronger than this.
Slapping the faucet off, Blue grabbed up a broom and dustpan.
If there was one thing surviving Jimmy had taught her, it was that Life obliged no one. You had to bend it to your will.
And…who stronger than a goddess to do just that?
If she could get word to Morana…
She looked up from sweeping the shards into the pan, checked the time.
If she was going to do this, she needed to go now. Mornings tended to be quiet at the restaurant. She just might catch Morana alone. If she didn’t, she needed a backup plan, a way to pass the message with no one knowing. But how?
Blue looked around her apartment, her mind tumbling over possibilities until her gaze caught on a stack of supplies from The Bean and she laughed. Morana liked her coffee extra sweet and heavily creamed. Well today, she’d get a little something extra.
While the coffee brewed, Blue took a quick shower, then slipped on clean shorts, t-shirt, and tennies. She poured the coffee into a to-go cup and, with one last look around her apartment, locked up and headed for The Adriatic.
Standing outside th e restaurant’s back door, Blue listened, trying to judge if anyone was in the kitchen or not. Quiet called back to her. In its echo, she remembered Sokach’s coin.
Right on the counter where she left it.
Her heart kicked up a beat. Should she go back for it?
The coffee burned through the paper cup, scalding the calluses on her palms.
No, there wasn’t time.
Blue sprinted for the door leading to the dining room, crouched below its window. Inching up, she peered out into the bar area.
It stood empty, but she still flinched when the door creaked as she slipped though it and made for the stairs.
At the top of the staircase, Blue paused, trying to catch her breath, which seemed to have stayed back in the kitchen. Sweat rolled down her back, prickled her arm pits. She tiptoed to Morana’s office door, stood outside of it, panting.
She inhaled deep and knocked. More of a tap, really. Knocking would echo and she couldn’t risk that.
No one answered.
Her hand shook, the coffee slapping the side of the cup.
In slow motion, she turned the handle and pushed open the door. The room yawned wide before her. Last time she stood in this doorway, a woman had died, engulfed in blue flames. And Blue learned the truth of who, what, Sokach was.
Squaring her shoulders, she stepped inside, noting the room was normal temperature, not ice cold like that night.
A chuckle sounded from behind her.
She whirled around, the paper cup slipping from her hands to fall to the floor and roll away.
Velimir stood behind her.
His arms crossed as a pleased smile spread across his lips. He leaned against the doorframe. “Well, well. You’ve made this even easier.”
“Oh yeah?” Blue asked, affecting the most casual voice she could muster, and stepped toward the spill. “Well, you made me make a mess.”
Please God, don’t let him see the words she’d written on its side, the warning to Morana.
She swooped down and picked up the cup, crumpled it, then tossed it into the garbage can against the wall. Pointing at the spray of coffee on the hardwood, she said, “I better get that cleaned up.”
But as she approached the door, Velimir straightened, filled its frame. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”
He lifted a hand, palm forward. She looked from his face to it, just as he snapped it into a fist.
And the room went dark.
Ten-stone weight s held down her eyelids. A heavy slush of sleep surrounded her. She trudged through it, toward the light, as though wading through waist-deep snow.
She must wake. Must tell Morana…
An ache in her shoulders bloomed. She couldn’t feel her fingertips, nor the arms attached to them. Were they still there?
Blinking, Blue lifted her head, taking in her surroundings and herself. She was seated in a wooden folding chair. No, “seated” implied she could get up, which she couldn’t. Ropes secured each ankle to a leg of the chair and bound her wrists together behind its back.
Panic rolled into her chest like a tidal wave.
She remembered.
Velimir had caught her.
Blue struggled against her bounds, but the ropes only scraped off layers of her skin. It was useless. She looked around her, or at least as best she could from where she sat.
A warehouse. She couldn’t tell how big it was because the only lights turned on were the ones above her. They illuminated about a fifty-foot perimeter around her and a few crates and pallets but cast the rest into darkness.
Voices drifted to her. Getting louder. Coming closer.
Opting to play possum, she lowered her head and eyelids, but not so much she couldn’t watch through her lashes.
Two shapes strode into the light: Morana, followed by Velimir.
He walked without a limp
.
Others came as well, maybe twenty, but it was too difficult to count. They stayed shadows on the periphery, like battlements around a castle.
Or an audience about an arena.
“You made sure to lock the place down? I don’t want any surprises once Dragić and his people get here.” That was Morana.
“Oh yes,” Velimir answered. “There’s no in or out without me knowing.”
Morana pointed at her, and Blue did her best not to jump. “What’s she doing here?”
Velimir smiled, rubbed his hands together. “After this…deal…is done, I thought a celebration would be in order. And what’s a party without a tasty snack?”
Bile rushed from Blue’s belly into her mouth.
“Enough,” Morana said with a wave of her hand. “Where’s Dragić? You said he’d be here by now.”
It was now or never. If she was going to die tonight, Blue might as well do what she came for – warn Morana. And save Sokach.
“There is no Dragić,” Blue yelled, her voice ricocheted off the metal walls and ceiling like a gong.
Both Velimir and Morana whirled and looked at her.
“What?” they barked at the same time, but in very different tones.
Blue lifted her head, looked at Morana. “I said, there is no Dragić.” She turned to Velimir. “Isn’t that right?”
Chapter Nineteen
Slipping through th e warehouse in silence, Sokach stuck close to the walls, avoiding the light, still unsure who could see his shadow. He’d shed his human appearance when he’d arrived and found the place surrounded by Pushkin’s men. With glee, he’d wiped them out with a single sweep of his magic. They fell, silent and dead, to the pavement. But with Anton, he took his time.
His little brother had picked a good place for this final act of his play, strategic. The warehouse’s open floorplan made it easy to spot an enemy’s approach. Not that Velimir would think he had to worry about a sneak attack.
Pray that confidence would be his downfall.
The plan, as Sokach had been able to decipher, was to bring Morana here under the pretense of meeting with Dragić and a handful of his counselors to discuss terms. Velimir would advise that she not trust Dragić’s word. He’d convince her to bring an army of her own.
But they wouldn’t be her soldiers. They’d be his.
Their combined magic would weaken her, make it possible for Velimir, with his new power, to kill her.
Assuming, she was alone.
Velimir’s scheme hinged on that critical fact, which also made it his plan’s greatest weakness.
Sokach grinned in the darkness.
Before coming, he’d risked going to a handful of daemons he thought could be trusted, hoping to add to his army of one. Of those who’d escaped Velimir’s purge, the few he approached were too terrified to make a stand against Velimir. His plan, they said, was too far gone, impossible to stop. He was impossible to stop.
Sokach rewarded their weakness and fear with fire.
Then did the unthinkable – he consumed their power.
He’d never broken one of Morana’s laws before, but in this case, he was sure she would pardon the transgression.
He crept forward, flanking the crowd of daemons that had fanned out to get a better view of the scene unfolding before them.
Velimir and Morana stood a few feet apart from one another.
Their voices became clearer as Sokach inched closer.
“What the hell is she talking about?” Morana said and thrust a finger at someone Sokach couldn’t see.
He came up short, his heart launching into his throat.
The third person was Bluebell, tied to chair. What the hell was she doing there? Why was she not on a bus to a new life in nowhere? Had the sigil failed?
“Velimir is Dragić,” Blue yelled. “He’s the one who’s been stealing your offerings. Tell her. Tell her how you brand all your followers with the lightning bolt symbol, the one that looks just like the scar on your leg.”
Morana turned to Velimir. Her face was hidden from Sokach, but from the set of her shoulders, he knew she demanded an explanation.
The temperature in the room plummeted hard and fast.
Velimir met her stare, then with slow, measured movements, he removed his glasses, folded them. His fist closed around them, crushing them into dust. “Well, I guess I won’t be needing those anymore.” His eyes slid from Morana to Blue, a dangerous tilt to his chin. In three quick, smooth strides, he was on her. He seized her by the chin.
At her cry, Sokach dug his fingernails into his palms. Not yet. He didn’t want to reveal himself yet, but he would if it meant saving Blue.
Eyes blazing, Blue twisted her head, trying to pull out of his hold, but Velimir only tightened his grip, smooshing her cheeks.
“However did you learn all that?” he asked, leaning in close to her face.
“From Sokach. He was on to you. That’s why you tried to kill him.”
Sokach tensed. She’d just given up his secret. Would Velimir catch it?
“Why?” Morana’s stunned voice cut in, and Sokach exhaled in relief at the distraction.
His queen turned a slow circle, looking at the daemons flanking her, understanding dawning on her face.
She faced Velimir again. “By all the moons, why?”
Shoulders hunched like a vulture dipping in to dine, his head swiveled to Morana. “Because I’m tired of scraps .” The last word was animal-like in its growl, and with a cruel thrust, he released Blue and straightened.
“Scraps?” Morana leaned forward, incredulous. “I have favored you above all my other daemons, gifted you souls—”
“Scraps!” Velimir screamed back, spittle flying. He stalked to her. “Just a taste, never enough to satisfy. Never enough to make us,” he swept a hand around at the others, “truly powerful.”
A grumble of agreement sounded from the surrounding silhouettes.
Sokach looked around, saw the figures incline forward, wolves drawn by the scent of blood. He scanned the crowd. One form stood a step forward from the others. Not quite with the perimeter, yet not quite part of the inner circle.
Tonći.
Sokach slipped up behind Tonći’s position. The little bastard would be one of the first to die.
As though on trial, Morana continued her defense. “Because that much magic would bring the Judeans down on us. You know this.”
“I know that you are afraid. That the Christian God is weakened by human apathy and conceit, yet, still you do nothing!”
Morana’s back straightened, her hands closing into fists at her sides. “Nothing? You call building an empire that has fed and kept you safe, kept you living like princes swaddled in riches and safety, nothing ?”
“You’d rather skulk like a rat than take back your kingdom. Than raise your people up!”
“You weren’t there for the war, not for the worst of it. None of you were.”
“Those are the excuses of a queen living in the past, crippled by fear. A queen unfit to rule. The very fact that you never saw this,” he gestured to the room, “coming, that you turned a blind eye to what was right in front of you, is proof of your incompetence.”
“Some would say it was proof of a mother’s love for her child.” Morana turned again to the waiting executioners around her. “Is that what he’s promised you? A return to power? To rule the mortal world?” She waited, listened to their cheer. Then shook her head, a slow wag of dismay as their avowal petered out. “Then you will all die.”
Velimir spat on the concrete.
“The armies of the Judean are like the ocean’s waves – unstoppable, unending in their onslaught,” Morana continued, ignoring his interruption, her voice growing louder, swelling with anger. She strode around, bringing them all into the picture she painted before them. “They will come. And come. And keep on coming. They will wash over you, drown you in their numbers. Their fire will burn the flesh from your bodies, their swords
will cut you down like wheat in the field. They will nail you to their God’s tree, crucify you. And you will be no more.”
Surveying the group, Sokach noted that a few of the heads no longer nodded, instead glanced left and right at their fellows.
“Not if we’re well fed.” Velimir looked Morana up and down as though reading a menu.
Morana brought an Artic blue fireball to life in her hand. “I won’t give up my power without a fight.”
“I expected nothing less.” Velimir shrugged. “And if we’re laying all our cards on the table, you should know we are not the weak daemons you made us; I’ve made us stronger.”
The gleaming sphere grew brighter. “Still, you’ll lose half of this army, probably more.”
“That may be, but you won’t get all. And that’s what matters. I’ll just replace the fallen.”
“So, you plan on keeping my power for yourself.”
“It’s only fair that I inherit it, don’t you think? Seeing as I’m now the oldest. Which, by the way—” He spun around, his attention back on Blue. “I must thank you. Your arrival in this little play was quite fortuitous. Poor Sokach tried so hard to hide his feelings for you. But after centuries of studying him, it was easy to see. You provided the perfect distraction. Exposed a rare vulnerability.” Velimir chuckled with perverse pleasure. “I mean, you literally handed me the opportunity to eliminate him!”
Wet tear tracks glistened on Blue cheeks, but her expression was mutinous. “Crow all you want now. It’s not going to last. If you go through with this tonight, kill both of us, the angels will be the least of your worries.”
His eyebrows rose high on his forehead. “Oh? What could possibly be worse than angels?”
Sokach needed no better opening. He threw two fireballs, taking out Tonći and the nameless daemon next him. Their nearest brethren jumped back, looking around for the unseen threat.
He shed his shadow form – let them see who they fought.
With confident steps, Sokach strode forward through the smoke and stepped into the light.
“Him,” Blue said, relief in her voice as she answered Velimir’s question.
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