by Linsey Hall
Ian took one last look at Fiona. They locked gazes for the briefest of seconds, then headed toward the demons.
CHAPTER TEN
Fiona crept down the hall behind Ian, her eyes on his broad back and the door in front of him. His limp had lessened. Some Mytheans healed more quickly than others, and he was in his prime.
Her heart pounded against her ribs, a desperate tattoo. They reached the end of the hall. The first door, the one without locks, was cracked open as the door at the top of the stairs had been. Fiona peered through the lower part of the crack and felt Ian do the same above her.
The space between the false door and the heavier one was small, not more than five feet, and beyond it the heavy vault door was swung open to reveal a large room full of shelves and bins and drawers.
“Not here,” a gruff voice said from within.
Her eyes tracked the voice to the far corner, behind a shelf. She couldn’t see enough to identify the species.
“Nor here,” another voice answered. This one higher pitched, possibly female. Fiona couldn’t see her either, but it sounded like she was closer and on the left side of the room.
“Gelve? Rone? Any luck on your side?” The gruff voice from the back asked.
They would say no, Fiona knew. She could sense the book like she had sonar in her mind. It was tucked all the way back in the very farthest left corner of the room, possibly even in a secret drawer.
A no and a grunt were the only answers. Fiona waited to see if any more would speak. Four against the two of them.
Fiona looked up at Ian.
“Four,” she mouthed.
He nodded once, his expression grave.
She held up one finger, then pointed to herself and mouthed, “I can take one.”
She was a good fighter, but combat wasn’t in her job description. Saying she could handle more would just get them screwed.
Ian looked at her hard, as if trying to decide if she really could. She scowled back. She had a damn good chance at taking one of the demons, especially the smaller one with the high voice. At least, she assumed it was smaller.
Finally, Ian nodded. He pointed to himself and mouthed, “Three.”
Her brows rose. Three? Really? Many species of demons could be as big and as dangerous as the Mythean Guardians. So far, she’d only ever seen the clever thief side of Ian. But if he said he could fight, she believed him.
He leaned in and pressed his mouth to her ear. “Take off my collar so that I can go in first, invisible, and see where they are. I’ll go to the back wall. When I reappear, go for your demon.”
Shite. He wanted her to take off his collar? He could run off on her. But he’d just risked his life for hers. He wouldn’t ditch her. Right? She bit her lip. She had no idea.
But he was right—it would help their chances if he could fight while invisible.
“Fine. But it goes back on immediately after.”
“Harsh.” But he grinned.
She nodded and pulled it off.
Without warning, he disappeared.
Wow. She’d never seen his Sylph powers before, but now she understood why he’d been such a damn good thief. The descendants of air spirits really had an advantage. She trained her eyes on the back wall of the vault and waited for him. A little part of her itched with the idea that he was headed back up the stairs toward freedom, but a bigger, more insane part of herself trusted him.
Ten seconds later, he flashed visible at the back of the vault and disappeared again. As quietly as she could, she rushed into the vault, shot to the left, and came upon her prey.
It faced away from her, but damn, was it tall. Very slender, though, and of indiscernible species.
Less than a second later, the sound of a groan and a thud came from the back of the room. Ian had taken care of the first.
Fiona raised her sword and swung it at the demon, who spun just in time and took the barest nick from her blade. It faced her, revealing the eerie features of some type of Caoineag half-breed. Not a demon, then. Caoineag, as Highland banshees were called, were fierce and deadly. A full-breed Caoineag would still be in the forests, but this one wouldn’t be limited by that and would have all the powers of her banshee brethren.
The Caoineag shrieked, a wail so high and sharp that Fiona's ears felt like they’d exploded. The pain nearly sent her to her knees, but she stiffened and raised her sword again. She struck and missed.
The Caoineag yanked her own sword from the scabbard at her side, flipping long black hair away from her face. The banshee’s sword clashed against her own with a ring of metal. Pain sang up Fiona’s arm from the collision, and she fought back, striking hard.
Fiona landed a blow to the banshee’s arm. The banshee shrieked, but held onto her sword and swiped it across the front of Fiona's hip.
She gasped. Though shallow, the wound burned like acid. Shite.
As Fiona stumbled backward, she caught sight of another demon out of the corner of her eye. He was an enormous, hulking beast. A demon of some kind, no doubt, and his huge head swung as he glanced around frantically, looking for the threat that had killed his partner.
Then his head toppled from his body.
Ian. She couldn’t see him, but gods, was he strong, to take such a big demon’s head straight from its body. He would have had to leap into the air when he struck.
Fiona returned her attention to the Caoineag. With a burst of strength, she took advantage of an opening and plunged her sword into her opponent’s gut. The banshee shrieked and fell to her knees. The piercing cry made Fiona crash to her knees as well, her head ringing.
She pried her eyes open, searching frantically for the other enemies. Her gaze raced around the room until it fell upon a pale, slender individual whose skin was traced with geometric black tattoos.
He was standing right in front of the drawer that held the book.
Nay. She stumbled to her feet as Ian surged toward the demon. In his haste, he seemed to have lost his invisibility. One of them just had to reach the demon in time. Before he—
The demon reached into the drawer, then disappeared. The book went with him.
“Nay!” Fiona collapsed to her knees again. “Nay!”
“Fuck!” Ian yelled.
“He’s— he’s—” Gone. She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. He’d grabbed the book and aetherwalked to safety.
It was gone. A sob tore from her throat. Her fists clenched painfully around nothing. Her future was gone. But worse, the tool that could incite divine war was about to be in the hands of the rogue god who wouldn’t hesitate to use it.
“Shite, Fiona. What are we going to do?” Ian’s rough voice pulled her back from the edge.
She drew in a ragged breath. She had to get it together. “You’re partners with Logan. I know it. Contact him. Ask for his connection, the Mythean who bartered his deal with the god.”
Ian said nothing.
“Doona screw with me, Ian. There’s no way Logan knew to bring you in here unless you were friends.”
“Fine. We were. But he’s gone. I’ve no way to get in touch with him.”
The severity of his voice convinced her. Damn it. She tried to shove her panic aside as her mind scrambled for options. “I’m calling Lea. She might recognize his description. We have to know what afterworld he went to.”
“Gods, it could be any of them. There’s no way to know if he’s native to the afterworld he just went to.”
Her heart thudded sickeningly. Ian was right. But it was their only shot. She yanked her cell out of her pocket and dialed Lea. Her words tumbled over themselves as she described the demon.
“Damn,” Lea said. “You went in alone.”
“Of course I did. What did you expect?”
Lea sighed. “That you would. And thank gods for it. The university has just gotten together a team to send out in an hour, but they’d have been too late. I’m going to have to do some research to identify that demon.”
“W
e doona have that kind of time.”
“I know! But we don’t have a choice, because I don’t recognize the demon you’re talking about. I’m going to get everyone on it. And we have to find someone who can get us to whatever afterworld it was taken to.”
Shite. She was right. Certain Mytheans could aetherwalk, but not many of them had free access to all the afterworlds. Very, very few did. It’d take time to find someone who could get them there. Too much time.
“We’re coming there,” Fiona said.
“Good. It won’t take long to get the word out. The council will be together by the time you get here.”
The council. The ones who’d demoted her and stripped her of her position when she’d failed to find the book. Her shoulders tensed.
Fuck it. It didn’t matter, not in the face of all this.
She mashed the End button and struggled to her feet. “We’ve got to get to the university.”
“Aye.”
They were able to exit via the alley door on the first floor, allowing them to avoid the charmed exhibits. Fiona didn’t know if she could face them in her condition, and Ian was still limping. Thank gods the police were gone from the alley. The dark concealed their bloodstained clothes as they crossed the street toward the flat.
It took only minutes to retrieve the car keys and their possessions. There’d be no reason to come back here. Once they’d replaced their blood-splattered clothes with clean ones, she approached Ian with the collar and snapped it about his neck before he could stop her.
“Really?” he asked.
She nodded, her chest feeling tight. “The council will need to see that you’re wearing it.”
He frowned, but beneath the annoyance she swore—hoped—she saw understanding.
“How’s your arm?” she asked as they descended the stairs to street level.
“Healing.”
She nodded. He’d torn up a shirt and tied it around his arm. If it was still a problem when they got to the university, they’d have a healer look at it. She wouldn’t mind having her hip and stomach gashes looked at. The wounds wouldn’t kill her, but a bandage would be nice.
They slipped into her hatchback and took off through Edinburgh. It was after midnight and the streets had quieted.
Fiona was vibrating with tension by the time they drove through the university gates. She’d hoped to return through these gates with the book in hand, fate proven, sanity saved, and her old job won back. She was returning a failure. A true Failte.
Her lips tightened. Not for long.
She parked her car beneath the same tree she’d put it under when she’d sprung Ian from prison. She climbed out and looked over the roof at him.
“I’ll see to it they doona put you back in that cell,” she said. They’d be going back into the Praesidium, the same building that housed the prison in the basement. Lea’s office happened to be in on the first floor.
He nodded, his lips tight and his eyes doubtful. Her heart sank, because though she’d fight to keep him out, her power didn’t extend that far. But they didn’t have a choice about going into the Praesidium. They had to get the book back.
They crossed the cobblestone lot and climbed the expansive stairs to the looming stone building. A chill raced over her skin as they walked into the atrium. The glass ceiling soared above the gleaming wooden floor.
“Doona worry about Lea,” Fiona said as they walked down the hall. “She’s going to look like a ghost, but she’s no'. And she’s harmless.”
“What is she?”
“I doona know. She’s just fading. It might have something to do with the fact that she never leaves her office. It’s a library that she had expanded into a suite, but she hasn’t left in at least a hundred years. Maybe longer. She’s the best at what she does, though. She knows everything there is about Mythean history, or where to find it. And she’s one of the top ranking officials.”
“Good thing she’s on our side,” he said when they reached a wooden door.
“Exactly.” Fiona knocked.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ian followed Fiona into the library office.
“Fiona, that was quick,” said a pretty, but transparent, woman. She turned to him. “You must be Ian.”
“I am.” He didn’t offer his hand for fear of offending her if she couldn’t take it.
She gestured to a table surrounded by a dozen chairs. All were occupied, though he recognized no one. Towering bookshelves loomed behind them. He and Fiona took seats next to each other. Her expression had turned to stone.
At the end of the table sat a disgruntled-looking man who glared at Fiona. Fiona’s boss, no doubt.
Lea sat. “We’re here to discuss the matter of the Book of Worlds.”
“Damn straight we are,” said the man who Ian had assumed to be Fiona’s boss. “You were out of line, Fiona! You’re no longer an Acquirer, and you had no business being in that museum.”
“Without her, you’d have no idea who took the book,” Ian said.
Fiona shot him a look that said thank you, but be quiet.
“He’s right, Darrence,” Fiona said. “It’s my fate to find it. I have to find it. I’m the only lead we have on the book, and I’m sure as hell going to retrieve it.”
“You’re in trouble. And as for you, Ian MacKenzie. Don’t think I don’t recognize you. You’re going to be back in that cell before you can blink. You’re a—”
“Enough.” Lea shot Darrence a quelling look. “We have more important problems. Rest assured, the prisoner will be sent back. But we must address the issue of the rogue god.”
Ian’s stomach lurched at the mention of being sent back to that hellhole. There was no way he’d let that happen. Fiona caught his eye and frowned. Darrence grunted but quieted, his look promising retribution.
“Did you identify which afterworld the demon went to?” Fiona asked.
“I did.” A blond woman leaned forward. She sat at one head of the table, across from Lea. Her skin emitted a faint glow. “I’m Aerten, Celtic goddess of fate and leader of the Praesidium. And from the description you gave of the demon’s tattoos, I think I know who stole the book. His tattoos indicate that he’s a minion of Carthe, a god from one of the pantheons that started the Divine War that led to the creation of the covenant thousands of years ago. You recall the stories of the war?”
There were a few murmurs of assent and Ian nodded along with everyone else. He’d never learned the stories as a child like other Mytheans, but he’d been told about them in prison. The war had occurred thousands of years ago in Eastern Europe, at a time when the Roman gods were busy in Italy and the Celtic gods in Britain. But the continent had been a mess. Four groups of gods from four different pantheons—all lost to mortal memory now because they’d destroyed themselves—had erupted into war on earth. The gods had come down to the mortals in an attempt to gain more worshipers. Not unlike the visits that the Roman gods had paid the Romans.
But there’d been too many gods. Too many choices on display for the mortals. It had erupted into war. The mortals fought for their one true religion, and the gods fought to be the leaders of it.
They’d nearly wiped out the entirety of the four pantheons and the mortals who fought the wars, until finally, with few left to worship and even fewer to rule, they’d convened to discuss the future. To save their own hides and ensure that nothing like that happened again, they’d agreed to sign the covenant that would allow gods to visit earth, but only in limited numbers and not for the purposes of war or gaining more worshipers. Other gods who hadn’t been involved in the war had agreed after seeing what had become of the pantheons that had engaged in war on the continent.
“So, Carthe dinna like the restrictions of the covenant?” Fiona asked. She caught Ian’s gaze, then looked away.
“Not at all,” Aerten said. “He was one of the dissenters to the original covenant. He was forced to sign anyway, of course, and agree not to come to earth to seek more followers, an
d thus more power.”
“So why start something now? It’s been thousands of years,” Ian said.
Several murmurs from the council echoed his sentiment. Darrence glared at him, but he didn’t bother to respond.
“As punishment for the Divine War, Carthe’s afterworld and the others that started the fight were closed off. The sentence was just lifted a couple hundred years ago. That’s probably when he started to look for the book,” Lea said.
“Didn’t anyone foresee that as being a problem?” Darrence asked.
“That they’d go for the book once their afterworld was reopened? Nay, because we never expected to lose it in the first place. We thought it’d be safe with us,” Lea said.
Arrogance had never been in short supply at the university.
“So the book is in Carthe’s afterworld. How do we get there?” Fiona asked.
“I can get you there,” a dark-haired woman said. “But Dalen, as their afterworld is called, is hard to access. It will take me time to find the path through the aether.”
“Vivienne is new to the world of myth,” Lea said. “Barely a month ago she discovered that she’s a Jinn of the Sila subspecies and that she has full access to the aether and all its afterworlds.”
“But because I’ve never been there, it will take me some time to find the path,” Vivienne said.
“How long?” Fiona asked.
“A few hours. A day.”
“There’s no way faster?” Lea asked.
“No. But we can leave as soon as I find it. I can take up to four people.”
“Good,” Fiona said. “Myself and Ian and two others.”
“Don’t think you’re going after it!” Darrence said.
“The hell I’m no',” Fiona said. “We need a Historius to track it, and I know the signal. No’ to mention that it’s my fate!”
“She’s right,” Aerten said. “It is her fate. And she’s already close to it.”
“Then he’s not going.” Darrence pointed at Ian.
Gods, he was being a bastard just to be one. But several of the other council members were murmuring their agreement.
