Revealed in Fire (Demon Days, Vampire Nights World Book 9)

by K. F. Breene

  Karen blinked a few times, then minutely shook her head. “We’re not going to get along, you and I.”

  “Correct. I look forward to our arguments. It’ll create all the energy we could possibly need.” The Red Prophet looked behind her, at a spot on the wall. She nodded.

  “Right but…you’re here now, and Grandmama isn’t,” Charity said to the Red Prophet. “There’s no need for any kind of ruse.”

  “True. Old habits, as they say. Though…these Brink mind alternants seem to promote exaggerated behavior. It’s best just to go along with it, I think.”

  “Only a hack needs drugs to use her Sight,” Karen murmured, placing the cards as the crystal ball cleared for one solid moment. Energy rolled over Charity’s skin. From Romulus’s shiver, he clearly felt it too.

  The Red Prophet jumped down from the table. “I will go and enter—”

  “You need to go to the Flush,” Karen told Charity and Romulus, “that’s true enough.”

  The Red Prophet hissed, straightened up, and faced Karen. “We must record our findings in private, so we can reflect on them before we speak with the others. That is how it is done. Then we must—”

  “We have a job to do,” Karen spat back, “and that job does not entail making everyone wait while you dream up more dramatics.” With a closed-down expression, she looked at Romulus. “When you get to the Flush—”

  “No. That is not to be revealed,” the Red Prophet said, and climbed back onto the table.

  “I know very well what is, and is not, to be revealed, thank you very much. Or didn’t you know that I foresaw Charity’s journey into the Flush?”

  “You are too rash, but even still, we make an excellent, powerful team,” the Red Prophet said, now smiling. “We are the best in the world when we work together. We will hate it immensely.”

  “Good God,” Karen said. “Anyway, Romulus, you must take care of your business in the Flush, then make your journey to the elves as planned. That much is very clear. With you, to both of those destinations, must travel the Triangle of Power.”

  “Yes. I Saw that, as well,” the Red Prophet said, and Charity noticed her sudden gravity. “The Triangle of Power is very important to this journey. But what is it?”

  Karen straightened up just a little, her chin lifting. She clearly liked knowing something the Red Prophet didn’t. “I Saw this in the past, as well. It’s not a new grouping.” She looked at Darius, then Emery.

  “Reagan, Penny, and I,” Emery said, dipping his hands into his jeans pockets.

  “They were the driving forces behind the victory against the Mages’ Guild,” Roger added.

  “Yes, the three of them working together are incredibly powerful,” Darius said. “But they are not leaders, per se. The ladies are…largely unpredictable.”

  Emery chuckled. “Reagan or Penny, when working alone, are unpredictable. Together they’re in another league. They’re a natural disaster. They can’t even be led, never mind doing the leading. They have to be corralled, at best.”

  Charity noticed Roger nodding. Charity wished she’d been there for the mages’ battle to see all this in action.

  “This is why they must stay with the fae,” Karen said. “He and Charity, with their people, will guide the powerful trio. They will stabilize their might. It is essential.”

  “You will need your wits about you, boy,” the Red Prophet said to Romulus, and it wasn’t often someone talked to him like that and called him a boy. Charity was pretty sure the Red Prophet didn’t notice. “You have been sheltered for a long time, and the world is not as you’ve imagined it. Working with the shifters will be your greatest strength. Hold on to that asset. Trust in the Alpha Shifter’s morality, but do not always trust in what you see. Or feel.”

  Karen shot Darius a grave look. “You will have to leave your people behind. For a while, at least. The Pyramid of Power is important, but so is the team you’ve created with Reagan. She will need her most loyal supporters by her side to start this journey—to keep her on the right path. It is necessary. You can…corral her like no other.” Charity stifled a grin. She didn’t know Karen well, but it was clear the woman knew how to control a space, and using the right language in times like these was clearly important in that, especially with a vampire. “You must start this journey with her if you hope to end it with her. But then what you dread will come to pass. When it comes time to visit the elves, you will need to let her go, come what may. She will take more risks and charge into the unknown, as is her strength. You will strategize and plan. Manipulate and enlighten, sometimes with lies, sometimes with truths, always with an agenda. You need to be the reason people should never trust vampires. Only if you are in your element, and Reagan is in hers, will your pieces of the puzzle work toward the greater good. And they must.”

  “Seek the one you once sought,” the Red Prophet said, looking skyward. “The most dangerous will prove the safest. The newly awoken will be your ace in the hole. Use her, and allow her to use you. It is in this partnership that a new path shall be forged. Beware the trickster, for he will ruin you.”

  Karen turned in her seat and looked at the Red Prophet. “I didn’t get that in the reading.”

  “You will not get everything. Just as I will not get everything. It is foretold.”

  “By who?”

  “By whom…”

  “Jesus Chri—” Karen turned toward the others again, her face red and her tolerance for the Red Prophet completely dried up, if she’d had any in the first place.

  “If Reagan travels with the vampire, it’ll be immediately clear it was they who went into the Underworld,” Romulus said. “Especially if Charity is traveling with them.”

  “Correct,” the Red Prophet said. “And if she travels without the vampire, it’ll be almost immediately clear who she is. The dam has burst. She has been unknowingly waiting for this moment since she was born. It is time she spreads her wings and challenges the lord of the Underworld.”

  “Buckle up,” Roger said. Darius nodded grimly.

  “Will you be going?” Romulus asked her.

  “No. I must stay behind for now. Thankfully. I’ve had about all I can take of the Flush. What a boring waste of time.”

  “What joy is mine,” Karen said sarcastically, looking over her tarot. She glanced back up at Darius and said, “It isn’t clear to me what is in store after you make it to the elves.”

  “That journey is not yet written,” the Red Prophet said.

  “I am not doubting you ladies, since I have seen your—at least one of your—merit in real time.” Darius slipped a hand into his pocket. “But you heard about my exchange with Vlad earlier. If I leave him unchecked, even for a few days, the damage he could do…”

  “You must,” the Red Prophet said.

  “Leaving him will do more good than harm.” Karen tapped a card. “I am in agreement with the nutter. You must. It is the only way to protect the heir. Otherwise she’ll never make it to the elves, and that would be the end. She must make it to the last battle.”

  “She must,” the Red Prophet added. Karen rolled her eyes.

  Darius shifted his weight in frustration, but he did not argue. Although Charity hadn’t been in the magical world for long, she knew a Seer’s reading was like a cheat sheet for a final. These Seers agreed on the path forward, even though they hated each other, which inspired plenty of trust.

  Still, Charity worried about what would come. It was pretty clear from all her dad had said that there would be a trial. That Grandmama would be judged and might even be asked to step down. Tensions would be high. Charity hadn’t assimilated very well in the Flush, and she’d been actively trying. From what she’d seen of Reagan, she assumed Reagan wouldn’t try at all. That would drive Grandmama crazy, which would add even more complication to an already complicated situation.

  “You must leave behind a small force to protect the back door, Romulus,” Karen said.

  “The Brink being the back
door, of course,” the Red Prophet added.

  “The power players must take the heir into the Realm…” Karen wiped her brow and shook her head. “That is all that has been revealed at this time. There are a lot of moving parts. After a break, I’ll try to look again and get more details. For now, however, we’ll have to go with the bigger picture.”

  “All of this is about what we’d deduced,” Romulus said, and Roger nodded. “It gives us confidence. I thank you for that. You relay your findings…quite clearly.”

  “I’ll try not to take offense,” the Red Prophet said, and cackled.

  Romulus ignored her. “I do wonder, however. What is our end game?”

  “The shifters have shown you what duty means,” the Red Prophet said, and jumped off the table like a cat. She straightened up and swiped at her hair. “You must do your duty, regardless of the outcome.” She sobered and her eyes cleared. She met Charity’s gaze. “Your quest is incredibly important—not just to the Realm, but to all the worlds. Your task is to restore order. It is to find balance. You have all the pieces. Now they will be set in motion. At the end of this, you will either have righted the wrong, or you will die, and your family and friends with you.”

  Adrenaline spiked through Charity’s blood and shivers washed over her. She’d gone from a lonely, poor kid to all of this in a matter of months. She couldn’t believe anyone would go along with her role in all of this, but there was no question that they were.

  “No pressure,” she mumbled, and the Red Prophet cackled again.

  Ten

  The next day, in the dead of night, I put my hands on my hips and sighed in annoyance as we waited in front of a jagged line cutting through the sky, marking a gateway into the Realm. Everyone in this group had more than enough magic to step through without even a twinge of pain or fatigue, but they had stopped to assess the situation all the same. I got the feeling they were worried about what was on the other side.

  I hadn’t progressed that far yet. I’d purposely sat out of the Seer readings, so I didn’t know what to expect. When you pretty much only had downhill to go, hearing your fate seemed like overkill.

  “I wanted to send an answering message down with a demon,” I grumbled. “It doesn’t seem right that my journey should be hijacked by a bunch of fae.”

  “That’s the sort of thinking that is going to get everyone in trouble,” Penny replied, chewing on her lip and staring at the gateway.

  “How do you figure?”

  Emery stalked back from the group of planners like a fighter getting ready to enter the octagon. Darius stayed in the cluster, speaking to Romulus as Roger, Charity, and Devon listened in. Everyone else waited nearby, Steve leaning against a tree and a sour-faced woman whose name I didn’t remember standing guard ten feet away, looking out at the empty field.

  We’d chosen a gate about a hundred miles outside of New Orleans. There were reasons for it, but I honestly hadn’t paid attention to any of them. There didn’t need to be one more boss in this outfit, and I didn’t like planning anyway. Give me a castle to storm, and I was in. Chatting about what waited beyond the keep? Yawn.

  “Because you’re going to get bored and cause trouble,” Penny replied.

  “I beg your pardon,” I said indignantly. “I do not cause trouble. I create mayhem. It sounds much cooler. And yeah, probably. But still. I should be sending a message to my father through a demon, then…like…”

  “See?” Penny pointed at my face. I slapped her hand away. She pointed again. “You don’t know what comes next.” She nodded like I’d answered a question. “This is the right way.”

  “This is the only way.” Emery stopped next to Penny and looked out over the field. “Lucifer showed up at the castle demanding answers, and left unhappy. Those elves weren’t being coy to protect their secrets—they didn’t have answers. They’ll be as stirred up as an anthill after a kid comes through with a stick. What we saw last time will be nothing, I guarantee it.”

  “Did you hammer that home to Mr. Magical Policeman?” I pointed at Romulus. “He still tends to think the best of people for some reason.”

  Emery’s lips pressed together tightly. He gave a curt nod.

  “Ah.” I shook out my hands and faced the field as well. What else did I have to look at? “The all-powerful and important Second seems to think his position will protect us all.”

  “He seems to think so, yes.” Emery lowered his voice. “He’s been gone a long time. He’s going to get a rude awakening.”

  As someone who’d been hunted for years, Emery would know. He’d seen the underbelly of the Realm and all the problems caused by the people in charge.

  This situation was starting to look up.

  “Who is…?” Penny squinted through the darkness and then put a hand up to block an absent sun. “Do you see that?”

  “We got something,” the sour-faced woman barked, planting her feet shoulder distance apart.

  Darius, one of two who could see in the dark, turned and peered into the night. I followed suit, pulling Penny’s hand out of the air to keep her from looking ridiculous. That’s what friends were for.

  Two shapes moved through the night, tramping over the weeds, one of them jerking as though it had tripped.

  The sky lit up, accompanied by a bug-zapper-type sound. Charity’s magical sun.

  Darius shrank away, and I sent a peal of air to punch Charity in the face. Her head snapped back before she dropped like a sack of bricks. Devon bristled, turning toward me with his arms pushed away from his sides and murder in his eyes. The sun clicked off.

  “‘At ease, disease,’” I quoted, and wondered if anyone would get the G.I. Joe reference. “We have a vampire in our midst. Watch what magic you use.”

  I sent a blanket of fire crawling through the sky. Flickering light sifted down to illuminate the two forms doggedly coming our way. I groaned.

  “What are they doing here?” Penny asked.

  “They never seem to understand ‘you can’t come’ applies to them.” I let the fire crackle above Callie and Dizzy as they neared, sweat beading on their brows from exertion and heat, each of them carrying a backpack and a satchel. Callie wore a lime-green sweat suit with two stars on the chest. I was pretty sure those stars were supposed to be in the nipple region of someone whose breasts weren’t yet on a downward trajectory.

  “Why did you choose a gate way out here?” Callie demanded, breathing heavily.

  “You have to go back,” Penny said, shaking her head. “This is going to be incredibly dangerous—”

  “Wrong approach,” I murmured.

  “We’re going to be walking for days. Maybe running,” Penny amended.

  I nodded. That was the better deterrent. The dual-mages were in their sixties. They could hold up their end of the bargain when it came to magic, but they weren’t big into hardcore exercising. Or any exercising.

  “I have a duty to that girl’s mother.” Callie pointed at me, and I knew better than to slap her hand out of my face. “Amorette gave up everything so her only daughter could have a chance. She might be gone, but Dizzy and I have picked up the torch. Besides…” Callie took a deep breath and adjusted the straps of her backpack. “Someone has to fix her up if she blows off her eyebrows. She can’t go meeting the elves looking like a Q-tip.”

  “She does have a point.” I nodded. I had a horrible habit of burning off my eyebrows. It wasn’t exactly a good look.

  “Missus Banks, Mister Banks, so nice to see you.” Romulus gave them a pleasant smile. “Do you need a rest before we continue?”

  Callie waved him away. “I don’t need any special treatment.”

  “Fantastic.” He looked over the group as everyone clustered together, Darius returning to my side. We’d worked out his anger issues the day before, and now he slipped his arm around my waist. I felt nervousness swirling through the bond we shared. He clearly shared Emery’s skepticism about our likely reception. “Charity and I will step through the g
ate first. After that, those strongest in power will follow. The weakest will go last, followed by Roger, as is the shifter way.” His gaze hit me. “You will walk through with Darius and Halvor, in the middle.” Romulus flicked his hand, indicating the assassin-looking guy he called his assistant. “This is both to—”

  I waved him away. “Sounds good. Let’s get to it.”

  Given the political situation, the gate will almost certainly be guarded. All of them will be. Try not to use your magic, Darius thought at me as everyone geared up. Let Romulus handle things. Let him do the talking.

  “That’ll last until the guards decide he’s a nuisance.”

  Yes.

  “And then?”

  At that point, I doubt you’ll be still long enough for a plan.

  Good point. I didn’t plan to stand idly by as elves rushed us.

  Fire rolled over me, and the heat felt damn good.

  The first few people went through.

  “I’ve always wanted to see the Flush,” Dizzy said, pushed up behind me. Apparently they’d be traveling in the middle as well. “I’ve heard it is absolutely beautiful.”

  “I feel like a donkey, carrying all of this stuff.” Callie pulled at the backpack straps again.

  “Here.” The big dude, Rod, stepped up and put out his hand. “I can take that for you, Missus Banks.”

  “Oh.” She smiled at him sheepishly. “Well, thank you, young man.”

  Penny and I exchanged a look, our eyebrows hiked up. Young man? It wasn’t like her to play the old biddy. Then again, if it took the load off…

  “Did you really come for me, or because you didn’t want to be left behind?” I asked as we stepped forward, like waiting in line at Disneyland. These people were much too cautious.

  “I’d be lying if I said I savored the prospect of waiting in the house,” Dizzy said, “doing nothing, listening to the two Seers bicker.”

  Callie elbowed him.

  “What?” he hollered at her. “She’s not a dummy. She knows we hate taking the safe approach.”