East of Ecstasy (Hearts of the Anemo)

by Laura Kaye

  As a group, they ambled down the hall, guided by the pace at which Megan could walk. Chatter and laughter bounded between the marble floors and beautiful murals on the ceiling. If she spent the rest of her life here, Anna wouldn’t be able to study all the artwork that decorated Aeolus’s home.

  The thought resurrected what Iris had said about the curse and the only way to beat it. To stay here. To never go home again. Just considering that sent her mind immediately into chaos. Over the idea of never seeing her father. Over the possibility of never returning to her life and her world. Over the realization that her deteriorating illness had absolutely nothing to do with chronic fatigue syndrome but with a thousands-of-years-old curse.

  And the longer she was in the Realm of the Gods, the more she believed in everything she’d learned, because she didn’t have a headache, her joints and muscles didn’t throb, and she actually felt that she had the energy to hang out with these women ’til the wee hours of the night. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this good.

  Not that the realization settled her mind at all. If Anna did stay here, would she live at this place? Or with Devlin? Would he want her to live with him? And where would Devlin live? In the East? How far away was that? Anna heaved a breath. The more she learned, the more she didn’t know.

  But she and Devlin could figure it all out, she just knew it.

  “How are you doing?” Ella said, slipping in beside her.

  Anna smiled. “It’s been kind of a crazy day.”

  Ella chuckled. “I’ve been sorta where you are. I understand completely.”

  Anna opened her mouth to reply when a dark, blurry image slammed into her brain. She gasped and froze.

  “Oh,” Laney said from behind her. “Oh, no.”

  Commotion erupted around her as the image sharpened. Something black and grotesque, with horrible teeth and razor-sharp claws. “I have to get this out,” Anna rasped, and then she stepped around Ella to the wall of the hallway, raised her hand, and pictured the colors she needed.

  Gasps rang out around her as Anna “painted” the image in her mind’s eye onto the wall with the movement of her hand spreading shape and color as if she held a brush. Except, the image wasn’t on the wall so much as hovering just over its surface, giving the horrific image a lifelike, three-dimensional quality.

  “Oh, God,” Laney said, stepping beside her. “I just saw us running through the halls,” she said. “Because something was chasing us.”

  Anna continued bringing her painting to life as icy dread shivered down her spine. God, she wished Devlin were here to see this and to help her figure out what it meant.

  “That,” Tisiphone said, coming closer, “is a Keres, a death daimon that feeds on the blood of the dying and dead. Is this what we were running from?”

  “I…I’m not sure,” Laney said, panic slipping into her voice.

  As soon as Anna had the whole image out of her head, she stepped back and surveyed what she’d painted, horror filling her belly.

  “Your powers are definitely getting stronger,” Ella whispered.

  “Where are my other paintings?” Anna asked, whirling on the group as prickles ran over his scalp. “There’s one I need to see. Now.”

  “Still in the Hall of the Winds,” Seth said. “Let’s move.”

  Anna gave her newest painting one last look as they left, not as amazed as she would’ve thought she’d be at the fact that she’d just painted with nothing more than her hand and her mind. It had just felt so…natural while she’d been doing it.

  Within several minutes’ time, they arrived at the hall. Anna sprinted across the space to where her paintings leaned in a stack against a wall. The others came up behind her as she sorted through them, finally finding the one she’d thought of in front of the small portrait of Eurus. She lifted the painting and words of fear rose up from the group.

  It was the one with the damaged ceiling, and through it, the sky was streaked with black.

  Those death daimons Tisiphone had described and she had just painted. Anna knew that now for sure.

  “What is it?” Laney asked, reaching out her hand. Anna turned toward her, and the moment Laney’s fingers connected with the canvas, her eyes went wide. “That’s what chased us. They’re coming!” she rasped.

  “Now?” Seth asked, moving right in front of Laney.

  “I think…yes. Now,” she said, grasping his hand.

  “We go to Aeolus’s chambers. They’re the most secure. That way. Now,” he said, herding them toward the door.

  They were halfway down the long hallway that crossed in front of the ceremonial hall when a horrible shrieking noise echoed from outside the building.

  “Faster, ladies,” Seth said. “Keep your eyes peeled, Tisiphone.”

  Outside the windows, flashes of light exploded here and there, highlighting the streaks of black against the brightness. The other Anemoi gods? They must be fighting the Keres.

  Part of Anna wished Devlin were here because she knew his touch would comfort her, while part was glad he wasn’t—because then he’d probably be outside fighting those horrible creatures, too.

  Boom! The building shook as something made impact.

  One heartbeat passed, then another. And then the shrieking noise sounded out from inside the building.

  “Oh my God,” someone said as Teddy started wailing.

  Another explosion, more vibrations, more shrieking, this time coming from another direction.

  “Oh, no,” Megan moaned. “I think my water just broke.”

  Anna peered over her shoulder and her stomach fell. Deep red was bleeding through the front of Megan’s stretchy pants. “That’s not your water. Seth, Megan’s bleeding,” she called.

  The shrieking got closer and closer.

  “Oh my God,” Megan was saying over and over again.

  Seth led them around a corner…and the hallway up ahead was dark with the flying, roiling bodies of long, gauzy black wraiths. The Keres.

  “Go back, go back,” Seth said, pushed them around the corner again. The lights over their head wavered, and Anna immediately sensed it was her doing it.

  “Don’t make it dark,” Megan cried.

  The light returned. Just like that. “Let’s get hidden somewhere and then I can shield us in darkness.” She looked over her shoulder at Megan, who was moving mostly because Ella and Seth were half carrying her. Blood had leached into her pants down to her knees and a trail of it followed her on the floor.

  “The blood is attracting them,” Tisiphone called. “You need to hide them somewhere now.”

  At the next door, Seth urged them in. Ella and Megan first, then Laney, then Anna.

  The shrieking closed in, followed immediately by a scream that quickly turned into a deep, screeching call. Anna whirled in time to see Seth’s body burst into another form, one made of fur and feathers. One moment he’d been Seth, the next, a beast. At the same time, Tisiphone shed her scarf and unleashed a headful of snapping, hissing serpents. Jagged red light shot from Tisiphone’s eyes and took out one Keres, then another.

  “Come on, come on,” Tisiphone hollered, waving at something off to the side.

  “He won’t let go!” a voice called. Tabitha.

  Oh, God, Tabitha and Teddy were still out there.

  “Teddy?” Megan called, apparently just realizing the same thing. She lunged for the door. Anna rushed after her.

  They got to the door in time to see Tabitha forcefully prying a crying Teddy’s arms from around one of Seth’s furry griffin legs. On hands and knees, she crawled with him to the door, using her body to cover his. She pushed Teddy into Megan and Anna’s arms, then scrabbled to her feet.

  Tabitha was wrenched backward as if something had grabbed her hair.

  “No!” Megan screamed, pushing Teddy behind her with one arm and reaching out with the other.

  Seth roared and Tisiphone flung more of that horrible red light at the Keres—now three of them—
grasping and pulling at Tabitha. And, oh, God, what their claws were doing to her arms, her face.

  And every time Tisiphone and Seth tried to get her, other Keres darted for the door. They were using Tabitha as bait.

  “Get back!” Tisiphone shouted. When they cleared the doorway, she backed in. “There’s nothing we can do for her, Seth. She’s already dead. Trust me.”

  He roared and lunged one more time. Anna could see him rising up on his huge rear paws and his massive wings unfurling.

  “If you go after her, you leave the rest of them unguarded,” Tisiphone yelled. “Griffin, now!”

  With an angry, mournful roar, he folded his wings and backed into the room, bowing his head low to clear the doorway. Oh, God, he was bleeding everywhere. His face, arms, back, and wings had been clawed open. With a swing of his great head, he urged them back.

  “Dizzy,” Megan said, tears streaming down her face. “Need to lie down.”

  “Her bedroom’s that first doorway,” Ella said.

  Seth swung his great eagle-like head up and down.

  Everyone followed Megan in, and Tisiphone ran to the far wall. “Help me,” she called, the snakes agitated atop her head.

  None of them paid the serpents the least mind. Laney held Teddy while the Fury, Anna, and Ella shoved a giant armoire in front of the window, almost blocking the whole thing.

  Banging and crashing and shrieking sounded out all around them, as if the bowels of hell itself had erupted. And from the looks of those things, Anna thought that might be true.

  “If you can make it dark, Anna,” Tisiphone said, “do it now.”

  Scared out of her mind, it took Anna no effort at all to comply. She called the darkness, and everything went completely, totally, uncomprehendingly black.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Owen had never been more terrified in his life. Not two years ago in Megan’s cabin when he thought he’d been dying. Not when he’d feared she could never love him. Not even, may his father forgive him, when Boreas was struck dead several days before. Then, he hadn’t had time to be afraid.

  Now, it was the only thing he could be.

  Because he’d left Megan and Teddy, and now they were being attacked.

  Heart already breaking, his only hope was that the cadre of lesser Anemoi they’d left behind had been able to fend off the daimons.

  Flying through the sky in their physical forms, Aeolus hung on to the tiniest thread of life provided by Zeph’s healing power. He would not survive—that much was certain. But Zeph had stanched the bleeding just enough to bring the storm god home. Badly drained, Zeph had finally allowed Devlin to carry Aeolus’s body.

  Between fighting the Keres and being absolutely stunned at the imminent loss of the god who’d always been the strongest among them, the Anemoi hadn’t even had time to react to what had happened. But the constant rumble of thunder in their wake and the mournful moan of the colliding winds all around spoke of the shattering grief they all felt.

  First Boreas. Now Aeolus. Owen’s heart lay in pieces in his chest. How were they going to come back from these losses? Because Aeolus’s death changed everything.

  Once Zeph ascended to Aeolus’s position of power, the West Wind would be left without a guardian until Devlin’s brother could be installed. Because of a deal Zephyros had made with Ella’s Olympic ancestor to save her life, only Alastor could succeed Zeph as his heir. With the East Wind gone rogue and the counterbalancing West Wind unmanned, the human realm was in grave danger of catastrophic weather extremes that would play right into Eurus’s hands.

  Which meant they didn’t have much time.

  “How is he?” Zeph called weakly to Devlin.

  “Holding on,” Devlin said, response full of bitter grief. “Just.”

  Owen’s grief surged for Zephyros and Chrysander, who were just beginning to make amends with their father. For Devlin, whom Aeolus had believed in when no one else did. And for himself, who as a freshly anointed Anemoi had found in Aeolus a new father figure. The death of the storm god was almost too much to bear. Owen could hear it in all of their thoughts, feel it in their wind, and see in it their mournful countenances.

  And then Aeolus’s realm came into view. The sky was in absolute chaos. Keres and Anemoi battled in the air above the compound, screams and screeches echoing across the distance. Smoke poured upward from one of the buildings.

  “Call them off,” Devlin growled to the death god who hovered just far enough away to be respectful of their familial mourning. “Now.”

  With two beats of Thanatos’s scythe upon the air, the Keres fled, rising up like a great dark halo before disappearing altogether.

  Dropping back to make sure the Keres did indeed leave, Owen noticed that, with his back hunched over the limp form of a dark-haired god, Devlin had brought Anna’s painting to life.

  Would you like my help? Thanatos asked.

  “For now, wait here,” Devlin said.

  Anticipation filled Owen as they entered the compound through a collapsed piece of ceiling outside the ceremonial hall—the result of a lightning strike if he’d read the charred ruins right.

  The inside of the mansion was an inky, unnatural black that dampened his usual ability to see in the dark.

  “Megan!” Owen yelled just as Chrys shouted, “Laney!” Their voices thundered through the space. Zephyros didn’t have the energy to yell, so he communicated telepathically with Ella.

  We’re at Owen’s, Ella replied at the same time Laney’s voice called distantly, “Chrys? We’re in Owen’s apartment.”

  Why were they all there? And why hadn’t Megan called out, too?

  “Go,” Devlin said, pulling Owen from the questions. “I’ll take Zephyros and Aeolus into the hall.” His voice softened at the end, as if he didn’t want to say the words. Holding Aeolus’s lifeless body between them, Devlin grabbed Owen’s arm, his grip like death itself. “This darkness is Anna. I can feel it. Find her for me.”

  “I will,” Owen said, grasping Aeolus’s hand. He didn’t want to say good-bye, but he wasn’t sure what else to say. So he squeezed the limp hand in his grip, fighting back the sting in his eyes and the knot in his throat. And then they parted ways.

  Nearly choking on fear, Owen shifted back into his elemental form so he could move faster through the pitch black. Chrys was right beside him as they tore through the halls and finally through the keyhole of the barricaded door to his apartment.

  Crying. The first thing Owen heard was Teddy crying.

  “Megan?” Owen said as he shifted into corporeality.

  A screeching roar sounded right in front of them, but Owen couldn’t make out what it was. Gods, had one of the Keres gotten in here?

  “What the hell was that, bro?” Chrys said from beside him.

  “Owen? Chrys? Is that you?” came a feminine voice. Laney’s? Both gods answered at the same time. “Anna, it’s them, you can turn back on the lights,” she called. Then, “It’s okay, Seth. Let them pass.”

  Light flooded the apartment. And a huge golden creature crouched between Owen and the door to his bedroom. Head and wings of an eagle. Body and tail of a lion. A griffin. Laney stroked her hand over the fur of its shoulder, which was about as high as she could reach.

  “Uh, Laney. Step away…” Chrys said, arms raising as if placating the giant beast, so tall it hunched to avoid hitting its head on the ceiling.

  “It’s Seth,” she said, face streaked with tears. “Those…things chased us but he changed into this and protected us. He’s hurt.”

  Great open gashes marred the griffin’s head, paws, and back. But right now, all Owen cared about was that the creature stood between him and his angel.

  With a mournful caw, the griffin lay down, opening a path to the bedroom.

  Owen darted through the door.

  Relief poured over him in a great waterfall. Ella, Teddy, and Anna surrounded Megan on the bed. Tisiphone leaned against the wall across from the foot of the bed, her
gaze shifting from Owen to Chrys to the doorway.

  And then Owen registered their panicked expressions. Saw the blood covering Anna’s hands and the sheets between Megan’s legs. Megan’s face was so pale that even her lips held little of their usual pink.

  “Oh, gods, what happened?” Owen said, flying around to the side of the bed. He could barely breathe.

  “Dada! Mama!” Teddy wailed, turning and throwing his arms out toward Owen. Ella patted his back and cooed in his ear.

  “Baby’s trying to come,” Megan said, licking her lips. “Something’s wrong.”

  “She started bleeding during the attack and those black creatures came after her,” Anna said.

  Megan grasped Owen’s hands and her face crumpled. “They got Tabitha. I couldn’t get to her…”

  The news was like a punch to the gut. “Shh, angel.” He wrapped his hands around Megan’s too-cool fingers and kissed her knuckles.

  “She was Boreas’s…” Megan said, tears dripping down her cheeks.

  Owen swallowed around the huge lump in his throat, feeling like he’d failed his father. “I know. Gods, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”

  “You’re here now,” she whispered. And then she grimaced and grunted in pain, her whole body seizing up. Red-faced and inconsolable, Teddy screamed.

  “Take him out?” Owen asked. “I don’t want him to…” see his mother… Owen couldn’t bring himself to finish the thought.

  Ella squeezed Megan’s hand. “We’ll be right outside,” she said. Ella slipped by Chrys and Laney in the doorway, but the sounds of Teddy’s crying told him she hadn’t gone far.

  Anna shoved the sheets over Megan’s knees and leaned in. “I know nothing about labor, but the baby’s not coming. Maybe it’s turned around?” She looked at Owen with pleading eyes just shy of panicked.

  This can’t be happening. There has to be a way. There has to be something I can do. Gods, if we were home, she’d be in a hospital and she’d be safe.