He let out an irritated breath, and then he nodded. “Okay. You’re what? A few thousand years old or something? I know better than to try to change your mind about anything by now.”
I smiled up at him. “You’ve changed my mind about some things,” I told him.
“Miracles do exist,” he said wryly, and I laughed.
“Now go. I want to get dressed.”
“They’re all here, waiting for you to wake up.”
“I know. I can feel them.” He nodded and left, closing the door behind him. I knew he was waiting outside in case I needed him. It took me a while, but I eventually shrugged into a t-shirt, jeans, my jacket, which someone had saved from the love hotel and made thorough repairs to. I pulled my boots on, brushed my hair. I was pale from my healing, and I put on some make up, inspecting the new scars across my throat and the knuckles of my right hand as I did. Marks of honor. I’d nearly fallen, but emerged as the victor once again.
My Queen would know it all now. She’d spent time with me as I slept. I have no doubt that she had seen into my mind, whether she meant to or not. How she would handle the things I’d learned, the things I’d kept from her, I did not know.
I took a moment to steady myself, taking a deep breath, preparing myself for what would come next.
I opened the bedroom door, and Brennan pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning against, took my hand in his. I could see the entire team sitting around the loft. Mollis, her mate, Artemis, Megaera, Tisiphone, Gaia, Hephaestus, Meaghan, Stone, and Ada. The children ran around, as always, and imps stood at the windows, always on guard. Mollis’s two Netherhounds lay near the door, and watched me as I walked down the stairs.
When I reached the bottom step, there were careful hugs from just about everyone. Tisiphone whispered how worried she’d been. Megaera congratulated me on my work. Triton was there as well, and he quickly thanked me for saving the lesser gods. Finally, it was Mollis and the demon, and Mollis stood there, arms crossed over her chest, her face like stone.
“My Queen,” I said, stopping a few feet in front of where she stood.
“Eunomia,” Mollis said, Our eyes met, and I knew. I steeled myself for what was coming. For what had to happen.
My Queen hates being lied to.
“You have done an admirable job of returning nearly half of the lost souls to me,” she began. “You have captured three of your own sisters, who were working against me.” She paused, and her face was an expressionless mask. “However, I see everything. I know everything. And what I know is this: you kept things from me. Important things. You lied to me. You chose to conceal the existence of beings who aided you, beings I had every right to know about.”
“Yes,” I answered quietly.
“Molly,” Brennan began beside me, and I held my hand up. He was practically trembling in rage.
“Do you have anything to say?” she asked me, and I shook my head.
“I did what I believed I had to. I have never worked for anyone but you.”
“And yet you lied. I refuse to have anyone in my home, in my inner circle, in my family, who would dare to lie to me as you have. With that in mind, you are officially exiled. You will not set foot in my home, or in my palace again. And you can go with her,” she said, pointing at Brennan. “Of anyone, you should know best how much I fucking hate being lied to. We’re done here.” And with that, she swept up her children and disappeared with her mate.
The rest of the team looked at me in shock.
“E. You can stay with us, girl. You too, Brennan,” Hephaestus said, his shock and confusion clear on his face. “She’ll cool down later and this’ll all blow over. Come stay with us.”
“Please,” Meaghan pleaded with me, and I shook my head.
“She’s going to stay with me,” Brennan said, heading to his room. I knew he kept a house that had belonged to his parents. I had been there once with Mollis back when they were mated.
Artemis went to her own rooms. She went where here grandson and his child went, and I knew her loyalty would not allow her to stay in Mollis’s home when her family was not welcome.
I stood, uncomfortable under the scrutiny of my now-former team members. Tisiphone and Megaera stared at me in shock and anger. I gave them a terse nod and headed up to my room.
It took me less than five minutes to pack.
By the time I was finished, Brennan and Hephaestus had begun loading bags from Brennan and Sean’s rooms into his car, and were coming back for a second load. Like me, Artemis packed light, and she had a bag slung over her shoulder. She put a supportive hand on my shoulder while Nain’s team tried to look anywhere but at me.
Brennan and Hephaestus finished, and Brennan grabbed a last bag, picked up his son. Hephaestus stuck his hand out and Brennan shook it.
“You need anything, you fuckin’ come to me and Meaghan,” he said to me, then looked at Brennan, including him in that. “She wants to be pissed, fine. She can be pissed. I’m not turnin’ my back on someone I knew fucking well did what she believed was right.”
I could not speak, in danger of sobbing again. Hephaestus hugged me. “What the hell happened, E?” he asked against my ear. “This is wrong.”
I shook my head. “She is right. I lied. I am not going to deny it. I will always be hers, but I am not going to deny that I lied, and I did so knowingly.”
Brennan seethed behind me, and once I let go of Hephaestus, he took my hand in his free one, and we left the loft, Artemis trailing behind us. We all climbed into Brennan’s SUV, Brennan strapping Sean into his car seat. Artemis sat in the back with Sean, and I sat in the passenger seat.
Brennan started the engine and sat, hands on the steering wheel.
“So? Home?” he asked me. “You can stay with us for as long as you want. And if you don’t want to, I’ll help you find a place. All right?”
“All right. It will all be fine.”
“Yeah? What makes you so sure?” he asked.
“I am thousands of years old. There is very little I do not know,” I said, looking forward. “I will continue to do what I do, and my Queen will live her life as she sees fit. I can only control my own actions.”
“She speaks truth,” Artemis said. “And I am starving, so shall we get moving?”
“Okay, fine,” Brennan said, putting the car into drive. “Where should we go first?”
“Pizza!” Sean shouted from beside Artemis, and Brennan shot a look in my direction.
“Pizza,” I agreed. Brennan shook his head and pulled out of the parking garage.
“I cannot believe this,” he muttered.
“It is what it is. I have no intention of falling apart now. My sisters were not working alone. There are more out there, planning to use these lost souls. I refuse to let that happen.”
“Why? What does it matter to you now?” Brennan asked.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “I have a choice to make between being angry and spiteful and being what I know I am meant to be. Maybe it makes me a zealot. I do not care anymore. I am what I am, and I have no intention of changing now.”
“Everything you did, returning all those, what? Eleven? Souls back to her, capturing three of your sisters who were behind all this shit, finding the missing lesser gods… you did everything she asked of you, and more, and this is how she goddamn repays you,” he growled, smacking the steering wheel in frustration.
“It could have gone better,” I said, and he grunted in agreement.
“It could be worse, “Artemis said from the back seat. “If Hades had still been in charge, he would have tortured you in punishment.”
“See?” I asked Brennan. “There is always a bright side.”
He just shook his head and drove toward downtown. Maybe the world was falling apart. Maybe my life was more chaotic than I ever could have imagined. But if there is one thing I know about being immortal, it is that you always have tomorrow. An endless string of tomorrows, and I had the power to make of them what
I chose.
I intended to make them worthwhile.
Epilogue
Two weeks later…
I was pacing back and forth across the empty pier. I had agreed to this meeting in one of the suburbs of Detroit, and I tried to appear calm despite my inner turmoil. I looked out over Lake St. Clair, barely even registering the view. It was near dusk, and empty fishing boats bobbed in the boat slips nearby. It was chilly. November had roared into the area with torrents of freezing rain, knocking the remaining colorful leaves from their branches.
I had been in Detroit long enough to know that, even to someone as old as I am, a Michigan winter feels interminable. Ceaseless. And for once, I was grateful I would not be there for much longer.
I stretched my back, still conscious, hyper-sensitive, perhaps, of where my wings had once been. I swore sometimes I could still feel my wings, that I could feel them moving, flapping as they once had. I had told Brennan about it, and he had pulled up information on his laptop about humans who had had body parts amputated. Apparently the phenomenon was known as having a “phantom limb.” Somehow, that seemed appropriate, all things considered.
I waited, and paced, and then finally stood still once again and looked out over the water. A few moments later, I felt a presence behind me. I did not bother turning around.
“So… do you think they bought it?” the Queen of the Dead asked behind me, and I felt a smile spread across my lips.
“I would say so. You nearly had me convinced for a minute there,” I said wryly, and she laughed.
“You told Brennan, right? He doesn’t think I’m a complete asshole, I hope.”
I laughed. “I told him. And he was furious. And then he was relieved. And furious,” I said, and she nodded, coming beside me and resting her forearms on the railing. “I also told him to stay away from your home. For obvious reasons.”
She nodded. “Nain knows too. But he’s mentally strong enough to keep anyone from prying into his mind. Bren probably is, too, but I don’t want to risk it. Not now.”
“I know. I do not want Brennan endangered by this.” I leaned forward, let my head hang down, stretching my neck. “I am glad you understood. You had every right to be furious.”
Mollis shrugged. “I was, at first. I sat next to you when Triton brought you in, and I stayed there when Asclepias healed you… and I saw into your mind. I wanted to know what happened, and I saw everything. At first, it was Brennan and his shit all over again. The lies. But I don’t have the luxury anymore to just go nuts and destroy everyone who pisses me off. And you’re the person I trust most in this world. Maybe even more than Nain, at times,” she said. “You’ve always been there, E. And so I made myself sit, and I re-read that email you sent me and I looked at what we knew so far… and I know that a lot of it is out of the bounds of what I know. But I don’t believe for a second that you’d betray me.”
“Good.” I looked out over the water. “The souls, my team, the New Guardians… I still do not know how they are possible. My best guess is that Nyx built it into them somehow, that she knew that someday my kind would not be enough. And so we have the New Guardians.”
“It sounds like something Nyx would do,” Mollis said. “And you believe, as I do, that your sisters were working for someone else. Someone stronger.”
I nodded. “None of us has the power to breach the prison and select the worst of the worst to free. That goes beyond us. Imprisoning other lesser gods… let alone four of them, would take a lot of strength.” I sighed, unsure how to word the next part. “Whoever it is who is pulling the strings, they have in intimate working knowledge of death. Of the way the Nether, and you, work. They wanted to weaken you, while building an army against you. That is not something my sisters, even working together, could have done. And they would not have come up with this on their own. They are, at their core, meant to serve others.”
Mollis was silent for several long moments. “They also have an intimate knowledge of how to make memories disappear. I’ve hit your three sisters, hard. I can’t find a single fucking sign of who did this. There are blanks there.” She was quiet, then her voice low. Not in sadness. In rage. “Do you know who the only beings are who are capable of taking, stealing memories from someone?”
I knew. I did not want to be the one to say it. And I also knew she’d come to the same conclusion, which was why her ploy at the loft had been necessary.
“Furies.” Mollis said it for me, and I closed my eyes at the obvious pain in her voice. “My mother or my aunt betrayed me. The smart thing to do would be to take them, torture them. Destroy them before there’s even a chance they can hurt anyone else I love.”
I put my hand on her arm. “I cannot believe Tisiphone would do that to you. I dislike Megaera, but I do not believe she would do it, either.”
“Well. I don’t want to either, but everything points to them, doesn’t it?”
“There are always others, Mollis. You are at the top. There will always, always be someone trying to take you down.”
“They didn’t do it to my father,” she argued. “Damn I wish he was here,” she said, and I heard it in her voice. Not just a queen looking for guidance. A daughter mourning her father.
“They did. Zeus alone tried to destroy him every century or so. This is nothing new.” It was my job to put this in perspective for her, to try to not let her fall into despair. “We know whoever it was has to have an intimate knowledge of the way the Nether, and death, work. So there are Guardians. Furies. What about other possible suspects? Demons know some things. There are lesser gods who are associated with the Nether. I have no idea if they are around or if they were lost to us when the gateway was destroyed. But that is worth checking out.”
“The memories, though, E,” Mollis said, and I shrugged.
“All I am saying is, yes, be careful of your family, no matter how much it hurts. But we need to look everywhere. Unless you want to destroy your mother and aunt now?”
After a moment, she shook her head.
“So we keep looking. And I keep tracking down your souls, and we work out a system in which I turn them directly over to you.”
“We’re missing more,” she said.
I sighed. “I know. They are taking them before the crows can get to them now.” I relayed the dead crows I’d seen in Japan. Crows that were hers, and she shook her head in anger.
“So my New Guardians are even more important now,” I said. “And if there are more out there, I need to find them. This is being done on purpose, to weaken you, to ultimately try to take you down. We will not let it happen.”
She nodded, met my eyes. “I went back and looked for your souls. At first, they hid from me.”
“They worried you would insist on putting them in the Nether prison.”
She nodded. “Eventually, I found them and convinced them I was not going to take them in, but that they needed to come here to help you. They’re in that empty boat club building on Belle Isle.”
“Thank you, demon girl,” I said, and she bumped my arm gently with hers.
“Thank you, E,” she said, meeting my eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you. You know that, right?”
I smiled. “You’ll never have to know. No matter what happens, I have your back, and I know you have mine.”
“We’ll make them regret the day they were created.”
I looked out over the water, at the setting sun, and smiled. “We will. And I am looking forward to it.”
THE END
Eunomia will return in the next
HIDDEN: SOULHUNTER book Betrayer
Available Now at Amazon.com
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Letter from the Author
And, here we are, back in th
e HIDDEN world. I hope you’re as happy to be here as I am. I knew, the moment Eunomia appeared in Lost Girl, that she was a character with a story I wanted to tell. I am so excited to be telling it, and I hope you love her as much as I do.
I am extremely grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life.
First and foremost, I want to think my readers. You guys are completely amazing. Your enthusiasm for these characters, for this world, is what makes it possible for me to keep writing about them. Every time you buy one of my books, or tweet, or post on Facebook, or review, or blog, or email, or recommend my books to someone else, I am touched and humbled. Thank you so much.
Thank you and eternal love to my husband, Roger, who is everything. Partner-in-crime, layout and design, technical help, proofreading/beta reading help, not to mention all of the other ways I depend on him every single day. You are the best.
To my kids, who both drive me nuts and make me delirious with happiness, often at the same time. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that Zoe and Sean may have been inspired by their antics.
My incredible beta reading team. They are absolutely wonderful. I love working with these ladies, and they are tough as nails and let me know when I go off track. Their love for these characters makes me happy, and I know this book is even better because of them. Thank you to Susan Cambra, Shawna Cerda, Jo Dawson, Kristen Driscoll, Jennifer G., Amber Hegarty, Brenda Hopkins, Sarah Leenart, Kathie Littlemore, Jayna Longstreet, Katherine Peters, Rachel Scott, and Sarah Wicks.
Finally, thank you to the lovely, talented Elizabeth Hunter for reading Guardian, but more so for being a really awesome, funny, supportive friend. You’re the best.
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