Her expression looked grim.
“The dark-eyed one. He knew he was on the East Coast. That he had been wandering closer and closer to where we lived. Gavin was certain he was up to something. That he knew something. He was beside himself about it.”
“And then Sean marched right into my life that very same night.”
“Yes, though I think those two things were somewhat coincidental, given that he did not seem to know what you were when he found you. I arrived in the woods that night, having followed your trail, only to find that he and his brothers had gotten to you first. I braced myself, prepared to fight them, but then I watched as he bent down, wrapped his coat around you with an inexplicable reverence, and picked you up, rushing you out to a vehicle and ultimately a hospital. I continued to keep my distance for a while. I wanted to be sure that he would not return. Once I felt it was safe, I dared to go to you.”
“If you thought I was so safe with him, then why did you sacrifice yourself?”
“He returned suddenly to the hospital. He stormed in, looking every bit the warrior he is. He was on alert, Ruby, and I could not take the chance that he had figured out what you were somehow. I did what I thought was best at the time, and I drew him away from you.”
“And got yourself killed,” I mumbled. “Gavin hates him. He blames him for everything.”
“I know. He told me very briefly about your romance with the dark-eyed one.”
“Oh good,” I scoffed. “Should I expect a lecture from you as well? Because it's really a non-issue. Sean and I are done.”
“You, more than anyone else, should know that I would never judge someone about whom their heart chooses. I did not hold your mother against your father. I would never presume to do that to you, either.” She came to sit beside me, wrapping her arm around my hunched shoulders. “You have to realize that the rage that has blinded Gavin's judgment regarding the dark-eyed one has not affected mine. I saw how this Sean treated you that night. Never, in all my years, had I seen anything like it. There was mercy in him where cruelty once reigned. Tenderness where hatred had long ruled. Had I not known better, I would not have thought him the same being that nearly eradicated our kind.”
I lifted my eyes up to hers.
“And what about when he murdered you?”
“That was the dark-eyed one I had long known, but even then, there was something hesitant about his actions. As though there was something—a conscience, perhaps―that caused him to pause momentarily. During that pause, I saw a glint of emerald in his eyes.”
I dropped my gaze back to the floor.
“The emerald shade is the shade I've known far more than the other.”
“So I've gathered.”
“I'm not going to get to say goodbye to him, Arianna. When Gavin put all the pieces together for me and I figured out what Sean had done, I went ballistic. I swore I would never have anything to do with him again. And now I'm sitting here, waiting for Deimos to come, and self-loathing is all I can feel,” I said softly. “I'm sorry. This is probably not the conversation you want to have, given what he did.”
When she didn't immediately answer, I sat up and faced her. There was a strange smile on her face.
“I think you need to find your Sean and tell him how you feel.”
“Cooper said he had tried to call him, but got no answer.”
“You're not Cooper. If he cares for you as you say he does, somehow I think he'll answer for you.” She reached across me to the end table and grabbed my cell phone, handing it to me before she sat back. “Call him. Whatever happens with Deimos, whatever fate befalls both you and me, you should forgive him before it does.”
I looked at her beseechingly.
“I was so awful, Arianna,” I confessed.
“Call him.” I turned my attention to the shiny phone in my hand. Calling Sean scared me almost as much as the prospect of Deimos' return. “But before you do that,” she continued, standing up abruptly. “You and I are going to go on a little trip so you can forgive someone else. There's no sense in sitting here, waiting for death himself to ferry you to the Underworld.” She turned and gave me a wry smile. “If he wants to claim you, he's going to have to work a little harder than that.”
She headed toward the door, snatching a couple of coats off the hooks on the wall. Something about the thought of making Deimos chase me was empowering, like a little “fuck you” to the being that supposedly couldn't be beat. Maybe he just hadn't yet met his match. If anyone could defuse all that terror he induced, it was Arianna. And once that terror was stripped away, maybe the mighty Deimos could fall.
A lot was riding on that theory.
I hoped it would prove true.
Chapter 38
We filed quickly into the TT and I fired her up, ready to pull out onto the road.
Then I realized Arianna hadn't told me where we were going.
“So, where to?”
“Head north out of town and get on route 4,” she said, buckling herself in.
“Route 4 north?” I asked incredulously. “The only place that could take us to is―”
I snapped my mouth shut as soon as I realized what she had planned. Arianna, knowing that I had unresolved issues with my parents, thought that visiting their burial plots would be cathartic for me. Maybe they weren't alive to hear me, but she was right: there were things that needed to be said. She knew that I had never confronted them when I'd had the chance. Maybe confronting their remains would somehow bring me closure.
And it was closure I needed.
“New Hampshire hasn't adopted one of those no-cell-phones-while-driving laws in my absence, has it?” she asked. I could hear the smile in her amused tone.
“Live free or die, baby.”
“Words to live by,” she replied tightly. “Now call him.”
Not wanting to argue, I pulled out my phone when we stopped at the final light leading out of town and dialed his number. My heart was in my stomach, and my stomach was lodged firmly in my throat. My nerves had my body in a mess. With every passing ring, my symptoms worsened.
And then it went to voicemail. So much for Arianna's theory. I pulled the phone from my ear and ended the call before I threw it to the floor at her feet.
“No answer.”
“Perhaps you should try again.”
I shook my head.
“Maybe later.”
Maybe never.
Arianna had the decency not to argue with me, and she dropped the issue of Sean altogether. At least for the time being. I had no doubt that, if we survived, his name would quickly be reintroduced into conversation.
Probably before Deimos' body cooled.
It wasn't long before we were on the winding two-lane highway, making our way toward my childhood hometown and ultimately my parents' graves. It wasn't how I'd imagined myself spending the last moments of my life, but I guess one never expects the mundane to be their final hurrah before the reaper comes. I, apparently, was no exception.
So when we wound around a particularly sharp turn, I wasn't expecting to see the reaper, appearing as Deimos, in the middle of the road awaiting me. Scarlet immediately roared in my ear, shoving me aside and taking over. She slammed our foot down on the gas pedal, but this time Deimos didn't disappear into thin air. Instead, with a flick of his wrist, the TT went flying off the road, flipping repeatedly while we rolled down the steep embankment.
“Be calm,” Arianna yelled, trying to make herself heard over the ruckus of the car’s crunching metal. By the time it came to a final resting place at the bottom of the grade, Scarlet was already halfway out the broken window. “Do not challenge him! You cannot beat him.”
Scarlet pinned her fiery eyes on Arianna, who was running to catch up to her.
“I may not win,” she said coolly. “But I still need to play.”
She then turned her attention to the darkened roadway at the top of the hill. Deimos' form was lit eerily from behind, the light of the moon
framing him. He made no move to come get us. He was clearly in no hurry. Like a true predator, the game for him was in the hunt. He wanted us to run. I could feel it. Ironically, what I could not feel was the terror his presence had always inspired. Scarlet, too, felt none.
And that lack of fear made her bold.
Like a streak of lightning through the darkness, she bolted up the hill in a flash. To her credit, I think she surprised Deimos. She sacked him as she had planned to in my apartment, but the problem with tackling someone who is questionably corporeal is that you never know just when they might disappear.
Scarlet and I learned that lesson the hard way.
She crashed to the ground, sliding face first across the pavement. The pain I felt was immediate, but it seemed minor compared to what was about to come. Deimos quickly reappeared, his feet standing only inches from Scarlet's face. She snapped an arm out to grab his ankle, but this time he was ready for her attack. Somehow, just as he had with the car, he made the slightest movement of his finger and her arm shot away, dragging the rest of her with it. Once she slammed into what was left of the guardrail, I heard a sickening snapping sound. A second later, a fierce burning sensation shot through that arm.
Why Deimos couldn't be defeated was becoming clear all too rapidly.
“You cannot have her.” Arianna's voice was clear, bright, and full of warning.
He laughed heartily; I'd learned all psychos did when you attempted to thwart their maniacal plans.
“I can have whoever I want, whenever I want them.”
“Not tonight.”
He slowly turned his attention to her while she methodically moved closer to him.
“Who will stop me?” he asked, watching her approach. “One has already tried and failed. You will be no different.”
“I am not my brother,” she said coyly. “Besides, you don't really want her, do you? Not when you could have me.”
“Don't interfere,” Scarlet growled as she stood.
“And what do you think you could give me?” Deimos asked, a hint of true curiosity in his tone. For a second, I wondered if Arianna's charms would be enough to derail his attack.
“What is it that you want?”
“Her.”
“For what?”
“She is to be Persephone's slave, in a sense.”
“I don't think that's going to happen, though. Do you?” she asked, still stepping ever closer to him while he looked on, unmoving.
“No,” she said softly. “You don't.” Then, when she was within striking distance of Deimos, she reached her hand out to him as though she were about to caress the arm of a lover. Scarlet, somehow sensing that Arianna had the upper hand, managed to sit tight and watch. It took every ounce of resolve she had to accomplish that. “Now,” Arianna whispered, “it's time for you to go.”
Snatching Deimos' arm, she latched onto him. Her grip was so tight that, even in the dim light, it was apparent that her nails were embedding into the flesh of his arm. The thrum of energy encircling us was undeniable. Arianna was its nucleus. It was as if she was calling the energy toward her, and when I looked up at Deimos, I realized just why Gavin had thought Arianna could save me.
That's exactly what she was doing.
Deimos' form started to weaken, becoming more and more transparent by the second. She was calling his energy to her, and it was killing him. Scarlet watched in utter delight, knowing that she could put to rest the uncertainty she'd felt since she'd returned to me. I was pretty damn excited to see him die myself.
In what seemed like a matter of seconds, he disappeared entirely.
Arianna turned to look at Scarlet with wild eyes.
“It is done.”
Scarlet stared back at Arianna, taking in the power that radiated from her.
“Impressive trick. Draining the energy of your opponent apparently comes in handy.”
“Not energy. Life force.”
“One and the same, is it not?” Scarlet asked, cocking her head to the side.
Then her eyes went wide.
“Unfortunately for you,” a male voice called from the darkness, “it isn't.”
Just as Scarlet had abruptly taken over, I slammed her to the side, screaming as I did. But it was too late.
Always too late.
The gleam of a strange metal cut through the night air where the moon reflected off of it. At least the parts that weren't coated in Arianna's blood. It had impaled her from behind and jutted out from her abdomen. It was pointed directly at me. Then Deimos violently withdrew it, letting Arianna crash to a heap at his feet.
“You cannot take the life force of one who has none,” he announced while he hovered over her barely moving body. His grin of satisfaction was impossible to ignore. Gavin had said the fey were physically fragile. Arianna appeared to be no different.
“How?” she choked out, the unmistakable sound of blood garbling her words.
“I can manipulate energy too,” he said, crouching down beside her. “Lives. Souls. It's all just energy of one kind or another. You, my dear, were just too vain to notice.” He leaned in to speak directly into her ear. “I let you think you were winning. And I have to say, I found your confidence wildly amusing. I just couldn't bring myself to stop playing along.” Arianna tried to reply, but instead she coughed up blood. “Shhhh,” he cooed, running a wicked finger down her cheek. “It will all be over soon enough.”
Before I could see what he was doing, the strange blade once again shot through her body. Right through her heart.
“Noooo!” I screamed, lunging toward him, but it was too late. Her death was as clear in her eyes as it was in the lack of energy I felt from her.
Deimos looked up at me, sheer enjoyment tainting his normally harsh expression.
“We have somewhere to be,” he said, stepping over her body toward me. “And your arrival is long overdue.”
Scarlet growled and attempted to gain control of our body, but it was too little too late. Before I knew it, he had me by the arm. Everything went black.
When I awoke, I was surrounded by a fiery red glow and a stifling heat so oppressive that it was all I could do to breathe. I tried to push myself off of the painfully hot ground that I laid upon, but I couldn't. It was as though I was paralyzed, and Scarlet appeared to be no better off.
I groaned slightly, rolling onto my back. The sight of Deimos staring down at me was what I got for my efforts. He smiled when the terror I suddenly felt registered in my expression.
“I present to you the Underworld,” he said, raising every hair on the back of my neck. “Your new home.”
Chapter 39
He snatched me up by the collar of my jacket, setting me roughly on my feet. When I started to waver, he held me by the shoulder to ensure I wouldn't go down like a ton of bricks. I, however, would have been much happier to return to the scorching ground again. I didn't have to take in my surroundings so long as I was down there.
Deimos and I stood on a rocky cliff that hovered high above a raging river. It seemed as though the river had carved its bed right through the center of a mountainous region long ago―if it was actually possible to call such geographic formations mountains when they were located underground. When my eyes fell on the opposite shoreline, I saw a dark and beautiful woman staring back at me. She was striking in every way imaginable, from her hair and face to her blood red, flowing robe.
Persephone, Scarlet growled in my mind. I swallowed hard against my rising fear. This was really happening. I was about to be handed over the Queen of the Underworld. It all seemed terribly anticlimactic really, given the lead-up. I was used to far more drama and fanfare when my life was in peril. Perhaps I was just becoming harder to impress.
“I would say it was nice to see you again, but...,” she said, sweeping her arms wide and shrugging. The gesture seemed to somehow quiet the waters below, as though she herself commanded them. “You and I haven't truly met before, Ruby. Though I have heard much about you.
I've known of your existence long before it ever came to be.”
“And now you're going to snuff it out for me,” I countered as bravely as I could while my legs trembled beneath me.
She shrugged again.
“Some things can't be taken personally, I'm afraid. This is business. Your other half made a deal, and deals cannot be broken. Not in my world.”
“I get why Scarlet made her deal with you,” I said, trying to stall. “What I don't get is why you were so eager to take it. There's something in this for you. I just can't figure out what.”
“Oh, that's very true, my dear,” she purred, her serpent's smile spreading wide across her face. “I have a very good reason for wanting you with me for eternity.” I stared at her blankly while she paused for effect. Satisfied that she had my full, undivided attention, she continued. “I made this specific deal because it satisfied my need for retribution.”
“Retribution? I don't even know you. What did I ever do to you?”
“Silly girl, you're not who I'm seeking retribution against. You're the means by which I can deliver it.” Her eyes sparkled while the flames that surrounded her danced in the depths of them. “Bring him in,” she yelled, looking over her shoulder. Not long after she did, Sean was brought in by armed guards and a tiny, sprite-like girl with delicate wings jutting out laterally from her back.
My eyes went impossibly wide.
“You look surprised to see him, Ruby. I wonder why that is,” she drawled, tapping her index finger on her chin for effect. “There is a reason why your lover was unable to fix this for you, despite his ability to fix so many things for you in the past. Do you think that was a coincidence?” Her question was met with silence. “Aww, you didn't know,” she said, feigning pity before turning her attention to Sean. “You did not tell her. How very typical.”
The openhanded slap she gave him echoed through the cavernous space. The second her hand made contact, I felt my body regain some of its strength. Scarlet stirred, growling her disapproval. “Allow me to explain, Ruby. You see, Sean and I used to have some very colorful times many centuries ago. That is until he exploited our little arrangement.” Her eyes narrowed into a hateful stare when she looked back to Sean, who stood stoically at her side. His behavior was baffling to me. I didn't care how many armed guards of the Underworld had their weapons aimed at him; Sean would have normally laughed in their faces just before he wiped the floor with their bodies. So why he was standing there doing nothing made no sense to me.
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