Zee plucked a glass of chardonnay from the table. “Well, there’s nothing you can do to change it. When you made the deal with him, it sealed your fate.”
Ursula folded her arms. “Emerazel made the deal after I stole Bael’s soul for her.” A twinge of guilt pierced her chest. He got his soul back, but Nyxobas had probably killed him for his failure. “If it hadn’t been the only way to get your soul back, I’d never have agreed to it. Nyxobas literally shows up in all my worst nightmares.” A shiver crawled up her spine. “He always has, in fact. Even before I knew who he was.”
“Well, he didn’t show up tonight.”
Ursula turned to scrutinize the elevator once again, but its bronze doors remained tightly shut—just as they had been all day. Did gods arrive in elevators?
Nyxobas was supposed to summon her to the Shadow Realm today. For six months, she’d have to live with him, work for him, do whatever he wanted. Fear snaked up her spine. And I have no idea what he wants from me.
She glanced at the bags she’d packed. Honjo rested on top of a black duffel. At least she’d have her trusty katana with her, in case that psychopath Abrax tried anything. The incubus had attempted to drain her soul more than once.
But she wasn’t going into this unprepared. In the bag beneath Honjo, she’d packed a collection of daggers and her finest ass-kicking boots. Plus, she had the reaping pen tucked in her pocket.
“Ursula,” said Zee, her glass now empty.
“The bottle’s in the kitchen,” Ursula said absent-mindedly. “If it’s empty, you can open a new one.”
“Ursula!” Zee snapped, her eyes wide. “There’s someone behind you. At the window.”
The hair rose on the back of Ursula’s neck. Now, the wind on her skin felt positively frigid.
Ursula grabbed Honjo from the duffel and spun, ready to defend herself. A dark form hovered in the window, cloaked in shadow. Dread crawled up her throat. Nyxobas had definitely not forgotten about her.
“Ursula?” said the figure, its voice light.
She jumped, her fingers tightening on Honjo’s hilt. She’d been expecting Nyxobas’s deep voice, but this shadowy form was definitely female.
“That’s me,” she said, trying to see into the darkness. Who the hell is this?
“Wonderful,” said the woman as she stepped through the window, hopping onto the rug—not a human, but a small, sharp-toothed demon. The kind with an affinity for human flesh—an oneiroi.
Ursula raised the blade defensively. With her cherubic face, the oneiroi looked harmless enough. Her long, silvery hair hung over a simple dark gown, and something like kindness glimmered in her pale eyes. She was almost matronly. But Ursula had encountered oneiroi in the fae realm. And they’d tried to rip her face off. Matronly or not, if this demon was going to leap for her throat, she’d be ready.
“You’re not Nyxobas,” she said, gripping her sword. Way to state the obvious.
“No, Ursula.” The demon’s pale brow furrowed. “I was sent to collect you. I am Cera.”
“Oh. All right, then.” Ursula couldn’t think of anything better to say.
Cera’s gaze landed on the laptop. “You do have such interesting fashion here. Who is it?”
Zee muttered something that sounded like Francesco Sforza.
“Fascinating,” said the demon, before turning to Ursula, all business again. “Are you ready to go?”
So this was it—tonight she was leaving for the Kingdom of Shadows.
“I guess I don’t have much choice.” She shot a panicked look at Zee, who simply shrugged, before she faced Cera again. “How are we getting there? And where do I put my bags?”
“You won’t need the suitcases.” Cera flashed a lethal smile of razor-sharp teeth. “You’ll have anything you could possibly want when we arrive. The lord is very generous, milady. Besides, Sotz won’t be able to carry it.”
Before she could ask who Sotz was, she caught a glimpse of movement through the window—enormous leathery wings beating the air and shining dark eyes. A chill crawled over her skin. As the creature moved closer, she made out a pair of long diaphanous ears. Is that a giant bat? “What the fuck?”
The bat’s eyes widened. Did it understand what she was saying?
“Shhh...” said Cera. “Don’t upset Sotz. He has very sensitive hearing. The creature squeezed its body onto the windowsill, gripping the stone with fleshy feet. It was enormous—the size of a small horse.
“Don’t worry, little buddy,” Cera said, scratching the bat’s head. “I don’t think she’s ever met a lunar bat before.” Sotz nuzzled the demon and a low rumble filled the room. The creature was purring.
Ursula crossed her arms, staring at them. “I’m confused. I thought Nyxobas was coming to get me.”
“The god?” Cera laughed. “He’s far too busy to come himself. Sotz and I will be taking you to his kingdom.” She glanced at the bat. “Sotz, can you turn around?”
The massive bat inched out of the window, flapping his wings twice before backing up into the window. A leather harness and saddle were strapped to his back.
Lifting her skirts, Cera hopped onto Sotz’s shoulders, twisting her fingers into his fur. She looked back at Ursula expectantly. “Whenever you’re ready, dear.”
Ursula turned to Zee who now stood, her empty wine glass forgotten on the coffee table. The fae girl had been keeping her company for the past six months. While Ursula had helped Zee recover from her soul-sucking trauma, Zee had tried to distract Ursula from her terrifying fate in the Shadow Realm. Their tools: champagne, loud music, and trips to Madison Ave—at least, in between all the hellhound work. “Zee, I’m really going to miss you.”
Zee’s eyes glistened, and she wrapped Ursula in a hug so tight it threatened to crack her ribs. Despite being only a size two, she was surprisingly strong. When she finally released Ursula, a tear was streaking down her cheek.
“Go.” Zee gestured at the oneiroi woman. “I’ll see you in six months.”
Ursula flashed Zee her most stern look. “Make sure you take care of yourself.”
Zee straightened, wiping her eyes. “I will. And, I’ll even put your stuff away. Though I might borrow that gold Valentino dress I bought for you.” She picked up the duffel and headed toward the hall. Ursula had the feeling she didn’t want anyone to see her cry.
By the window Cera cleared her throat, and Ursula’s muscles tensed. Time to go.
Chapter 2
Ursula shoved the sword into the Kevlar scabbard and strapped it to her back. She was leaving her clothes behind, but there was no way in hell she’d travel to the Shadow Realm without Honjo.
By the window, Cera turned to her, a wicked glint in her silver eyes. “Are you ready?”
“Not really.”
“Have you ever ridden a horse before?”
Ursula shrugged. Good question. “I don’t think so, but I don’t remember anything from before the age of fifteen. For all I know, F.U. may have been a champion rider.”
Cera’s pale brow crinkled. “F.U.?”
“Former Ursula. My pre-amnesiac self.”
Cera flashed her a sympathetic you-should-probably-take-your-medication smile.
Ursula forced a smile back. Right. I sound like a nutter when I talk about the amnesia. Then again, we’re about to ride on the back of a giant bat, so a little nuttery is in order.
“Well,” said Cera. “Whatever the case, I’ll be guiding Sotz, so you’ll just need to hold on.” She arched an eyebrow. “I do hope you’re not afraid of heights.” “Not really.” A chill whispered over her skin. But I’m terrified of Nyxobas.
Her brush with the shadow void still haunted her nightmares—the god of night filled her with a horrifying, gnawing dread. A painful emptiness that still flickered in the hollows of her mind. She tried to push the thoughts away. Her voyage on the bat would be bad enough without dwelling on the void.
“Climb on.” Cera nodded at a pair of leather handles on Sotz’s saddl
e. “Grip there. Then step into the stirrups. Just be sure to hold on tight.”
Pretty sure I’ll be clutching on for dear life. Ursula pulled herself up to the windowsill, then hooked a leg over the saddle. Gripping the handles, she slipped her feet into the stirrups.
As Cera whispered into the Sotz’s ear, Ursula’s fingers tightened on the leather. It didn’t seem like the safest way to travel. Surely, hurtling through the sky on a giant mammal required a seatbelt or helmet.
In the next second, the bat launched from the window. For a moment, Ursula’s breath caught as the creature began a stomach-turning plunge, then the bat’s wings unfurled. Their path steadied, and they swooped past West 59th Street and over Central Park.
Ursula clutched the harness in a death grip, her pulse racing. Her auburn hair whipped about her face with each beat of the giant wings. Sotz angled his wings, and they turned sharply. The movement cleared the hair from her eyes, and she caught a glimpse of the Plaza Hotel.
“Where are we going?” she shouted over the wind.
“Brooklyn,” Cera said, turning in her direction, her sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight as she spoke.
The Shadow Realm is in Brooklyn? She frowned. It was hard to imagine the terrifying incubus Abrax cramming himself into skinny jeans. Maybe extending his talons to spear a vegan burger at a Park Slope diner.
The night wind whipped over her skin, and she shivered, thinking of the high demon. She had no idea if he’d made it out of the fae realm alive.
Sotz soared over the Plaza’s white marble crenellations, then higher above the twinkling lights of New York. Distant car horns floated on the wind, and the bat alternated each wing beat with graceful glides.
Her grip on the harness relaxed. The view was extraordinary.
The great avenues of New York carved between the buildings like golden rivers of light. All around her, skyscraper glass gleamed faintly in the moonlight.
As they flew toward the tip of Manhattan, she breathed a sigh of relief at the quiet of the night air. After four years living in London, she’d grown accustomed to the perpetual background hum of busses, traffic jams and people asking for money. Up here, she heard only the distant beat of a helicopter’s blades. Somehow, floating through the dark night sky felt like home.
Before she could get too comfortable, a piercing screech sent her heart racing. Cera screamed in an unintelligible language as Sotz folded his wings into his body. Ursula gripped the harness and they plummeted down, dropping out of the sky—but not fast enough.
As the wind whipped Ursula’s hair into her face, something large and scaly slammed into her side, nearly tearing her from the harness. The force of the impact sent them careening toward a skyscraper. Gritting her teeth, she clung to the handles with an iron grip.
Cera shrieked hysterically, letting go of the bat’s neck.
“Watch out!” Ursula pulled back on the harness. Her heart pounding hard against her ribs. Sotz’s wings snapped out, and Ursula jerked the harness away from the skyscraper. Sotz turned, veering away from the building.
F.U. had apparently been bit of an equestrian.
A second screech shattered the night, and she glanced to her right, her blood chilling. She caught a glimpse of an enormous, shimmering outline. A translucent creature, at least the size of a bus. And it was heading right for them. Bollocks. We’re fighting something nearly impossible to see.
“You need to steer!” she shouted at Cera.
Clenching her knees against Sotz’s sides, she drew Honjo from his sheath. The long katana glinted in her hands—and not a moment too soon. She twisted in the saddle, slashing at a long, translucent limb. The blade jerked as it cut into solid flesh.
A howl rent the air.
In the next moment, the creature yanked the sword from her grasp.
Her blood turned to ice. Honjo—her only weapon—had just been ripped from her hands.
Sotz folded his wings, diving lower. Wind whistled in her ears as they raced like a falling meteor toward the East River. Just as Ursula resigned herself to a watery death, Sotz unfurled his wings, redirecting them toward the steel cables of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Somewhere behind them, their attacker screeched, a bloodcurdling sound that shriveled her stomach. Adrenaline surged. Honjo hadn’t killed the damned thing, he had only annoyed it.
The Williamsburg Bridge grew rapidly larger and Ursula’s muscles tightened as she braced for impact. At the last second, Sotz turned, diving between the cables, heading for the tunnel’s mouth.
Ursula’s heart hammered against her ribs. Lights flashed in its entrance, and a rumbling noise echoed off the walls. A subway car is heading right for us. She shouted a warning, but with a single flap of his wings, Sotz cleared the train, flying between the car and the ceiling.
The train raced by beneath them, and she let out a long breath when they cleared it.
Only the flashing red signal lights illuminated the tunnel, flashing off the rows of steel beams and girders on the ceiling. They winged down the tracks as a second train rumbled toward them, its lights glowing brighter and brighter. At the last possible moment, Sotz veered left into a dark corridor.
This tunnel was completely dark, and only the sound of the air rushing by her head told her they were still flying. After what felt like an eternity, Sotz slowed the beating of his wings, and glided to a landing.
Ursula slid off the bat, falling to her knees on a dusty floor. Pure adrenaline pumped through her veins. “What was that creature? I couldn’t even see the bloody thing.”
Cera pulled something from her pocket—a glowing, violet crystal. From the stone, tendrils of magic snaked into the air, creating a sphere of light that illuminated the space.
Ursula surveyed the derelict subway platform, the space around them covered in broken wood and debris. “That creature,” Cera smoothed out her dress, trying to regain her composure, “was a dragon.”
Chapter 3
Ursula stared at Cera. “But I remember learning that dragons were extinct, and that’s why their wyrm-skin hides are so valuable. I was told they were all killed in the ninth century.”
Cera brushed the dust off her black dress. “Definitely not extinct.”
“I don’t understand.” She hugged herself, her body still buzzing with panic. “Why did it attack?”
Before Cera could answer, a heavy thud reverberated from the ceiling, and bits of plaster drifted down like snow.
Thud. “It’s followed us.” Cera looked up, shielding her eyes from the plaster dust. “We need to leave at once.”
Thud.
White dust rained down on Ursula’s clothes.
She scanned the platform, instinct kicking in at last. If there was one thing F.U. had seared into the lizard-part her brain, it was how to find the best escape route when danger closed in. In either direction, two tunnels curved off into the darkness. Her odds were fifty-fifty of choosing the best one.
Thud.
Thick chunks of plaster littered the floor, and her pulse sped up. We’re running out of time.
“Which way—” she started to ask, but the sight of Cera leaping down from the edge of the platform interrupted her. “Cera?”
“We always keep one of these around in case of emergencies,” she called out from under the platform’s ledge. Slowly, the oneiroi dragged a child’s play-pool onto the tracks. Murky water filled the blue plastic, and faded yellow seahorses and scallop shells decorated its sides.
Ursula gaped. “Are you going to bathe the dragon into submission?”
THUD!
This time, a scratching noise followed the impact. It took a moment for her to realize the dragon was digging.
“Look,” said Ursula, raising her voice. “We need to run. It’s fifty-fifty odds. We just need to choose a direction.”
“Be quiet,” Cera hissed. “And take your clothes off.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“There is nowhere to run. Not in this real
m, anyway.” The demon fixed silver eyes on her. “If we don’t go now, we will be eaten.”
Before Ursula could protest, Cera stood, holding up her violet crystal. The rippling water in the pool stilled. Black shadow magic curled over a glass-smooth surface.
Cera turned to hear again, her eyes sparking with irritation. “Why are you still wearing your clothes? I told you to strip.”
Bloody hell, woman. Another thud sounded from above, and chunks of masonry and plaster poured from the ceiling. Definitely running out of time. Screw it. She pulled her shirt over her head.
“Hurry!” Cera shouted, giving an unnerving display of her sharp teeth.
Ursula unzipped her jeans. “Will you at least explain the need for nudity?”
“No clothes may contaminate Nyxobas’s water.”
Ursula unhooked her bra just as a great crack split the air above them. She glanced up at a shimmering claw tearing through the ceiling. She tore off her knickers.
“Jump in!” Cera leapt into the center of the kiddy pool.
Completely nude, Ursula held her breath, and plunged into the black water.
Her feet didn’t hit the bottom of the pool—instead, she plummeted deeper into the inky water, sinking below the surface. Instinctively she shut her eyes, her chest clenching as frigid water completely enveloped her naked body.
How deep was this pool? She opened her eyes, searching for a point of reference in the pitch-black water. Fear tightened her chest—the pool’s surface was nowhere in sight.
From the depths, a deep voice whispered, “This one has fire in her veins.”
She kicked her legs, moving away from the sound. Who the fuck is that?
“The shadow god’s enemy,” murmured a second voice—a gravelly tone.
Shadows & Flame Complete Boxed Set: Demons of Fire and Night Novels Page 24
