“No, thank you. I appreciate the offer. Are we done?”
“I don’t think you want us to be done. The Immortalis fear you as they do your mother. You don’t seem to have the same love of violence or thirst for blood”—he glanced at my weapons—“or perhaps you do,” he said with a tight smile, “but they fear you all the same. Like your mother, you’ve surrounded yourself with warriors who will protect you. The only ones capable of injuring and killing them. She created the Immortalis, and until they came across your army, they were indomitable.”
I didn’t correct him that Mephisto and the Others weren’t my army. They weren’t even there on my behalf, motivated only by the desire to keep Malific from being released.
“Even gods feared your mother. She did kill one of them, so I suppose their fear was warranted. She was used to getting away with a great deal. People dislike challenging gods. She probably thought killing the god would go unchallenged as well. It’s putative that it led to her being imprisoned. A step too far, I suppose.” He shrugged.
“Seems like there’s a lesson to be learned from that,” I said pointedly.
“Ah, the gods were her equals. Neri and Adalia aren’t my equals, nor are any of the fae on this side of the Veil. Your mother killed the god for no other reason than he dared challenge her actions, question her motives, and attempt to stop her. It cost him his life.”
Great, my mom is a psychopath.
“I tell you this so you know, because having me on this side of the Veil rather than your mother is the better option. Olis has asked for my help in releasing her. Your blood link to her is the answer. I’m not sure if you are aware of this fact, but the prison is linked to her magic. The Immortalis want to get you into the Veil, use your death to free her.”
As he prattled on, we continued our dance of distance. I took a step forward; he took three steps back. It was as if he’d done this before. It made me consider that there might be more in the Veil like me, or rather more Raven Cursed.
“They think they need to get you into the Veil to do it, but I have discovered a way to do it without you going anywhere near the Veil.” He smiled cruelly. “Perhaps we can come to some agreement. If not, I’ll give that information to the Immortalis and let them use your death to release your mother. She will be rewarded handsomely for it.”
A shudder ran through me. I needed more than just the push dagger. Mephisto’s suggestion of permanently ending him didn’t seem extreme or cruel in any way. He moved slowly toward the door, keeping his distance from me, but I didn’t take care to maintain it. I moved closer; he responded with a magical nudge. A warning. Sparks gathered around his finger.
“You have to believe that having me here and meeting my demands is a better alternative than freeing Malific. But if you resist me, then you have no one to blame but yourself for the consequences.”
Ian wasn’t making a great defense for the case of keeping him alive. I wanted to do the moral thing and the right thing, but he was a threat. He must have seen my intentions on my face or read them in my movements because he took a couple of steps back.
He gave me a half smile. “I have no more desire to release Malific than you do,” he admitted. “The witches are responsible for her imprisonment, well, partially responsible. They aided the gods in doing it and Malific is quite upset about that. She’s a vengeful woman, and I assure you if she’s released she will be unmerciful with all who were involved. I’m confident it wouldn’t just extend to the witches within the Veil. She’ll ensure that there’s never an opportunity to imprison her again.”
He regarded me for a long time. I played with the chain at my neck. I might not crave violence or have a bloodlust, but with each passing moment, I was feeling increasingly lust-y and crave-y. I studied him in turn. He hadn’t relaxed enough. His stance was cautious and readied.
“You have a fondness for a gentleman who is a witch. Boyfriend? Malific has never been one for subtlety. Her wrath will be a hellstorm that will leave many bodies in its wake. I doubt your friend will survive it. That delightful witch who helped you at the park? She’s gone. But if you align yourself with me then nothing happens. All will be as it should. The shifters will be left alone. You will have fulfilled your obligation to them.”
“What about my obligation to the fae? You want to overthrow Neri and Adalia. How is that fair?”
“Might is right,” he said brazenly. “They’re not strong enough to rule the kingdom. Rulers should not be decided based on campaigns and popularity. The shifters are led by the strongest. So are the vampires. Witches and mages by the most skilled. The same should be true of the fae.”
I supposed he assumed I didn’t know about fae politics. Madison trusted Neri and Adalia as leaders; she revered them, yet she would not follow them blindly. The fae had a democratic process. Their rule could be challenged at any time. I didn’t want to get into fae politics, nor did I want to align myself with this cretin.
“So you’ll leave the shifters alone, take over the fae courts. What becomes of Neri and Adalia?”
The dark rumble of his laughter filled the room. “It doesn’t have to be hostile. I’d prefer that it wasn’t. But I have a goal and they are the two people standing between me and achieving it”—a smile flourished over his lips and he gave me a reverent nod—“those two and the goddess.”
“Stop calling me that,” I demanded.
“Does it change who you are?”
I looked for signs of whether he could hear my heart beating hard in my chest. I assumed the Immortalis hadn’t gotten the information from me. As far as they knew, they had to keep me alive and get me into the Veil in order to release Malific. Ian had discovered a way to use me to release her without me even having to go into the Veil. I couldn’t let that information get to the Immortalis. They’d track me down for sure. Malific was so infamous, if people knew that I was the key to her being released, my life would be one of the most protected by those who didn’t want her released.
“I guess I have not been totally honest with you,” he admitted coyly. “There is one more thing I need. It is my understanding that you have access to Obitus blades. Once you have found a way to remove my marks, the Immortalis will eventually become aware. I will need to handle things.”
“Don’t be modest. You plan to not only betray them but to kill them too.” How was he better than Malific?
His head nodded ever so slightly. “It would be best if I had all four blades.”
He ushered an innocent smile onto his face and, for a second, he did manage to look innocuous.
“Our alliance will prove to be a great advantage to you.”
“Will it?” I asked, incredulous. “Alliance makes what you’re offering seem innocent when in fact you’re just issuing beautifully worded threats.”
“Not at all.” His voice was full of innocence. “Just as I was able to walk between here and the Veil, there are others who can do the same. If it were to be disclosed that Malific has a daughter and she’s the key to releasing her—I wonder how long you’d live. That, Erin, is a threat.”
That was the moment I gave in to the anger flooding me. I yanked the push dagger that I’d been fingering through my shirt. My lunge came in a flash of movement. Faster than I thought I could move I was upon him, going for his neck—the one place that would do the most damage with a blade so small.
The blast of magic hit me so hard in my chest I crashed into the chair behind me, toppling it over.
“Do not disappoint me, goddess, you will live to regret it,” he growled. He was out the door by the time I’d come to my feet and grabbed my weapons. Dashing out the door after him, I was just in time to see him fly away. He was close enough for me to see the fiery rage that flushed his face and the daggerlike look that bore into me.
“I’d hoped we would be able to come to terms. I assure you, Erin, you do not want me as an enemy because your allies aren’t strong enough to protect you. Must I remind you how you, the Alpha, an
d your witch fared against me in Dante’s Forest?”
With that, he soared into the sky, his midnight wings a small eclipse of darkness in the bright sky.
Assassination is something you can’t downplay as anything other than what it is: murder. My job caused me to live in the various shades of gray. I took things that weren’t mine, but I always left money. I negotiated with and kept company with my share of miscreants. I had contacts who eavesdropped and gave me information I shouldn’t have had. And yes, I’d poached things from other people. But there was no ambiguity about assassination.
Assassinating Ian was something I kept thinking about. He had a way to release Malific without me going to the Veil. The threat was an act of aggression and I had every right to retaliate, right? There wouldn’t be any consequences, and I’d be able to keep my magic because I was from the Veil but had been taken from there.
How was he going to do it? Fae couldn’t do spells, so it couldn’t be a spell. Perhaps a magical object. I’d been vocal about STF policies on illegal magic objects but was starting to rethink my stance on that. There were things out there that shouldn’t be accessible.
I examined the shuriken. It was coated with enough blood to make it easy to track Ian. I’d placed the rifle in my bag. Should I take a rifle, a gun, or a sword? Old school. Sir, you have offended me, now it is time to die.
Fuck.
Madison sat across from me, nursing a glass of water but looking in need of something stronger after I told her what I’d learned about myself, Mephisto’s suggestion about getting rid of Ian, and me considering doing it myself. Her breathing was slow and measured and she appeared to have given up on blinking. Putting the glass on the table, she dropped her head back and looked at the ceiling.
Calling Madison shouldn’t have been my first choice. It should have been Cory. He could do the locating spell, find Ian, and we could be done with things. He would have groused about it, made a half-hearted attempt to dissuade me while walking to the car.
I knew why I called Madison. Part of me didn’t want to do it.
She rooted around in her bag for a moment, showed me her badge, and then tossed it aside. We knew that I was talking to Madison my sister rather than Madison the STF agent.
“Do you think he’s lying? I still find it hard to believe that a spell protects them against being killed,” she asserted. “What if it’s not true? That’s a hell of an urban legend to propagate.”
I was not expecting that line of questioning.
A tight half smile was all I could manage. “I think it’s the truth. It rings true. Shifters in the Veil are immune to magic and then there are Mephisto and the Others. They clearly have magic. I’m able to borrow it from Mephisto without consequences, and they can stop me from borrowing their magic. The people from the Veil are different.”
“Or it could just be that Mr. Mysterious and his cadre of peculiar friends are different.”
“I have to stop Ian. Him being alive will have dire consequences not just for the fae, but the city and me.”
Madison stopped mid-transition from standing. I assumed she was on her way to get alcohol. I didn’t blame her. She was having her liminal periods, too. Before, I was the woman she considered a sister who she’d risked her career for to clean up a mess. The person she called to bounty hunt and retrieve stolen goods when she wanted to be discreet. And now I was so much more. It had to be hard to process.
“You can’t do that. What happened to going with Mephisto to the auction?”
“I went to Dante’s Forest with Asher and you saw how that ended.”
“Okay, but at least go. You already admitted that he seems to have access to things others don’t. Go tomorrow and I’ll go through our inventory again.”
Concern eclipsed her face, the rigid frown remaining even with the noticeable effort she put into relaxing it. Her expression spoke the words she wouldn’t say. If I were Malific’s daughter, was there a part of me like her? Could this change me? Would I change? Or maybe I was projecting.
“Go tomorrow and we figure out things from there.”
She grabbed her badge and palmed it. I was no longer speaking with Madison my sister but Captain Madison Calloway. “I don’t need to confiscate your weapons, do I?”
I shook my head.
“Erin,” she entreated.
“No, you don’t. I won’t do anything reckless.”
“Promise?”
I ran my hands over my face. I couldn’t break a promise to her. “I promise I’ll go to the auction and from there, I’ll decide what to do next.” That was the best I could give her.
CHAPTER 21
Mephisto stayed at the threshold of the door and looked—no—stared at me. Face indecipherable. His dark gaze traveled from the strappy silver heels to the exposed leg that slipped from the slit of the blush-colored dress. It ran along the planes of the straps of the body-accentuating bodice with the plunging neckline with pleated details along the chest. Roved over the bracelet on my right wrist. Then it breezed up to my neck adorned by a single teardrop diamond necklace. It was one of the few pieces I owned that wasn’t an impressive replica of expensive jewelry. He was still staring when I grabbed my purse off the table.
“Ah, so you have been to one of these events before,” he said, giving the dress a final look. “I was expecting jeans, or t-shirt and leggings.”
The dress looked appropriate, but I was fully aware of where I would be and the type of people who attended these events. The slit in my dress allowed ease of movement and the ability to run freely if necessary. The knotted design of my bracelets were sharp enough that they could be wrapped around my knuckles and used as a weapon. My heels were tall, sharp, and, despite the sorrow it would bring me to do so, could be broken off and used as another weapon.
Mephisto’s eyes went to my purse that was larger than appropriate for the dress and had even more weaponry goodness in them. “You know your purse will be searched and all weapons confiscated?”
I didn’t know that. In silence, I picked up the smaller purse I had discarded. A smile tugged at my lips as I took the wallet, keys, phone, and a Taser out of the larger purse, which opened too wide, revealing a gun, a dagger, and electric pellets.
“Erin.” Mephisto had eased his way in front of me. “What were you thinking? You can’t believe they would let you in with all of that?”
I nodded.
“These events are quite exclusive, and I’ve worked for years to become a regular attendee. I trust you won’t do anything to jeopardize that.”
Holding his intense gaze was difficult because I knew exactly what he was implying.
He went on. “I have your word that whatever objects are won will stay in the possession of the owner? No reports to Madison.”
There was anonymous reporting. I’d prefer that Madison received credit for the retrieval, but an item being confiscated was the most important thing.
“Erin,” Mephisto repeated, his tone cool and professional, “I realize that you live in a perpetual state of conflict of interests with you being so close to Madison and her role at STF, but I need your word that what happens at the auction stays there. The magical objects and artifacts of the owners aren’t your business to tell.”
The set of his jaw made it clear that he was prepared to leave me where I was. He could walk away from this and be just fine.
I nodded. It wasn’t enough. “Fine. You have my word that anything that occurs at the auction will remain there.”
“Very well. Do you have any weapons in that purse? No matter how small it is, they will search it.”
“Um . . .” I gave him a look, hesitated, and said, “No.”
I didn’t sound convincing and his gaze dropped to my small clutch purse. I opened it and placed the small thin daggers hidden in the lining of it on the table. Then I removed the credit card–shaped blade and the three small shuriken that I kept in the zipped compartment.
Mephisto’s lips pursed into
a tight line. “Are there more?”
I pulled out the four electric pellets. “These aren’t really weapons; they’re a distraction device. No more deadly than me pointing my finger and saying, ‘Hey, look over there!’”
“Then that’s what you’ll have to do. Please remove them.” He shook his head. “What do you think happens at these events?”
“You had shifter security detail at your last auction.” I reminded him of the time I arrived at his home after discovering that he didn’t respond to my magic the way others did. It was his duo of shifters that took away my weapons.
His lips lifted into a miscreant smile. “It was necessary for that one. Are there any more weapons?” His gaze dropped to the stash of weapons on the table. “Should I check your person?” he asked in a low drawl, closing some distance between us. Enveloped in his magic, I moved even closer. Another magical seduction I was falling for.
Mephisto stopped a few feet away. He started to push his fingers through his hair but stopped. Probably didn’t want to mess it up. Exhaling a slow breath, his gaze lingered on me for a long time.
“We should leave,” he said finally, extending his hand to mine. It surprised both of us when I took it. His magic caressed my fingers, a warm tingle flitting over my skin.
“Stop it,” I hissed. Mephisto’s deep chuckle reverberated off the walls of the apartment. The feeling disappeared.
On the way out we passed Ms. Harp, ignoring Asher’s request, holding her cane. Usually she went to great lengths to avoid eye contact, hoping to avoid any conversations with “Chatty Cathys,” but this time she didn’t. Giving me a cool inquiring look, her eyes dropped to my hand nestled in Mephisto’s. Was that a snarl?
Whatever it was, she made a valiant effort to smile and succeeded in creating a rigid line that barely lifted the corners of her lips.
“If you speak with Asher, do you mind asking him to give me a call?” she asked me, her voice dulcet. If it wasn’t for the flicker of dark mischief that passed over her face, it would have seemed like an innocent question. “I meant to give him something before he left your home the other morning.”
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