Kayla wasn’t dead.
She couldn’t be.
And Rowan was going to prove it.
But as she skidded to a stop next to the trolley, her gut heaved. She was wrong. Kayla was definitely gone.
Her skin was a strange blue-white color, and her eyes, a weird green they hadn’t been previously, stared toward the sky. Her brown hair was plastered to her bloated face, and blood had soaked into the white shroud around her legs. Her face was contorted in a terrified scream, fixed there by rigor mortis.
The spark, the essence that had been her friend, was gone.
“What happened?” Rowan blurted. “Where did the blood come from? You said she drowned! We’re not even near the Nile!”
The suited woman lifted a single blonde eyebrow. “Her wounds indicate she was mauled by a crocodile.”
“A crocodile?” Rowan repeated. “But her body was found here?”
“Yes.” The woman shoved past her, pushed the gurney and Kayla away to a black van that waited in the parking lot.
“Where are they taking her?” Rowan demanded, trying to follow. Yael grabbed her arm.
“She needs to be examined properly,” Dr. Campbell said. “There’s nothing more we can do for her here.”
“But—”
“She’s gone, Rowan,” Yael said, voice surprisingly gentle. “They need to examine her body. Let her go.”
But she couldn’t.
Somehow, with a strength she didn’t know she had, she wrenched herself out of Yael’s grip and ran to where Kayla’s body was about to be loaded into the van. She pressed a finger to Kayla’s throat, where her pulse would have once thundered. Now there was nothing. Her finger burned cold where they touched. “If I could give you your life back, I would. I will miss you.”
Tears clouded her vision, and sadness poured from her. Kayla had been afraid to die. Had been terrified of the curse.
And now she was dead.
Yael pulled her away from the van. She let him. There was nothing more she could do for her friend. She was gone, like Eric, like her parents.
Just gone.
Chapter 37
The Celestial City, Heaven
“I have heard that the fallen angel Raziel knows where the human piece of Heaven’s Heart is.” The archangel Aurora’s voice floated through Uriel’s study, delicate and smooth as honey. Funny, how it grated against Michael’s ears, as if it were a storm of angry bees.
“Raziel?” Uriel asked, elbows on his walnut desk, fingers steepled together. “He always was an excellent scholar.” There was almost a note of regret in the archangel’s voice.
As if casting that particular angel out of Heaven had been a loss.
No angel is worthy of regret.
“Do you know where he suspects it to be?” Michael asked, getting to the point. If left to their own devices, Uriel and Aurora would dance around the matter for an age. They were schemers and bureaucrats, the both of them. And it didn’t really matter how good or bad a scholar the fallen angel was; it only mattered if he had discovered something of use.
“No,” Aurora replied, her golden eyes sending him an invitation to bed, even while Uriel watched, oblivious. “We have an agent looking into it though.”
Aurora had asked Michael numerous times to engage in coitus with her, and each time he refused. Her carnality disgusted him. His body was a vessel for his impending divinity, and he would not pollute it with her lust for power.
It was one element of his brother’s nature he had never been able to understand.
“Make sure your agent is successful, then,” Michael said. “We cannot have those fallen angels finding Heaven’s Heart.” The first piece of the Heart—the one that had been stolen from Heaven—was still missing, although the Infernus demons that had taken it were dead. Unfortunately. “If they do find it, we shall be obliged to allow them back into Heaven, and it is bad enough that Cassiel was returned.”
Cassiel’s crime had been to save the life of a demon who had been raped by another angel, although that detail was of little importance in the greater scheme of things. He had gone against tradition, against the rules, and he had been ultimately rewarded for it.
It just demonstrated how their system had become…tainted.
“Why is Gabriel not here?” Aurora asked.
“His loyalty is in question,” Michael replied.
“Why is that?” Aurora ran her hands over her body, straightening clothing that didn’t require it.
Michael shook his head scornfully. “He told Nanael about Cassiel. If he hadn’t, we may have succeeded in removing the traitor’s wings before he ascended.”
“Gabriel plays by the rules,” Uriel murmured. “It is worth remembering that.”
Yes, Michael thought. He plays by the rules. But those rules are broken.
And only he could fix them.
Chapter 38
The Valley of the Kings, Egypt
Yael didn’t know whether he wanted to strangle Rowan or kiss her senseless. The moment he’d learned she’d gone missing, rage and fear had flooded him, turning his mind into a white-hot blaze of fury. It was only when he had figured out she was in the tomb that he’d calmed slightly.
And to then find her, shaken and bleeding after being trapped…he had barely even registered her statement about the strange skull. He’d wanted to grab her and pull her to him, to feel that she was alive and okay. But he’d still been so angry that she’d deliberately snuck off, put her life in danger.
Especially after he’d just learned of Kayla’s death, and the effectiveness of the curse.
Yet, here they were, back at site even though someone was dead.
“Do you really think we should be here?” he asked, studying Rowan.
“Yes.” She was pale, her body radiating tension. Hell, even he had to admit he was a bit shaken. That curse had been nasty and it had been quick. Campbell had been plying Kayla with neutralizer spells since she’d touched it, and Yael had donated two more curse-breakers in addition to the first one.
But none of them had worked.
Kayla had drowned, her neck had snapped, and her legs had been shredded by animal teeth. The curse had said that the crocodile would strike in the water; it just hadn’t specified what kind of water. She’d been drowned and mauled to death in her fucking shower.
He hadn’t told Rowan that bit.
But he wasn’t coming unprepared this time. Azrael and Dru would be along too, and Azrael could see magic without help. Plus, that first curse had been neutralized by Campbell after Kayla touched it. So, the magic could be broken prior to activation, at any rate. To assist in that, Yael had brought an arsenal of spells with him, and he had put an extra-thick layer of Clear Sight on his eyelids—he looked like he was wearing makeup, but he didn’t care.
He needed to know what they were up against.
He’d also roped Campbell into coming back, even though the demon thought they were going to the first tomb. The curse-breaker was currently reviewing his stock of spells, before being brought to the trench by Azrael.
It was the best Yael could do to protect Rowan. He doubted anyone could stop her going back into the tomb. He’d been guarding her for weeks, for free, because Z owed Dora. Yet she’d run off and put her life in danger. If she was at risk from anyone, it was from herself. At least if he went in there with her, this time, then they could avoid any nasty magics, and hopefully beat Lucifer to the Heart.
Stop trying to rationalize the fact you’re using her.
The only reason you’re doing this is because of Raze’s intel.
He winced.
Why was his conscience suddenly kicking in?
If there was no link between Heaven’s Heart and Twosret, you would never have allowed her back here, not until all the magic in the tomb had been destroyed.
So, he was doing this for himself.
And Azrael, Z, and Raze. And maybe Ser
aphina, although she seemed happy enough in Hell with her new lover.
Bitter much?
The thought made him pause. Was he…jealous…of Seraphina? He had always admired her, thought her calm and logical and skilled. He may have even had a slight crush on her at one point. But not anymore. No. His entire body had grown attuned to a single person, and that person was someone so inappropriate it was laughable.
Trick had also been inappropriate.
And there it was.
Seraphina had thrown caution to the wind and had hooked up with the master of an assassination guild. And sure, she had accidentally made herself a true fallen angel in the process, but she was now ensconced in Tartarus with her lover and they were starting their happily ever after.
There was no way he could ever have that with Rowan.
For starters, she was mortal. She’d die. And it was all too clear how fragile she was when faced with spells and magics she didn’t understand and refused to believe in.
“Okay. Here is where I pressed the last time.” Rowan’s voice drew him back to the moment. She stood, pointing at the side of the stone door.
Right.
Break into tomb, steal Heart.
Got it.
His plan was so simple it had to work.
“Okay.” He grabbed a small crowbar and wedged it in the tiny gap she’d indicated. He then threw all his weight against the tool, leaping out of the way as the door swung open, smooth and quiet, almost colliding with him on the way past.
“That was much easier than how we did it.” And wasn’t it funny, how they’d ripped the door open and away, and yet it had been magically sealed again when they returned?
“How did you do it?”
“Never mind.” She wouldn’t be happy to hear they’d pried it open using brute force, uncaring about the damage caused to the stone. Then again, it had magically fixed itself.
“Here!” Dru appeared at the side of the trench, an enormous boulder in her arms. She wavered a little, then dropped the rock on Yael.
He managed to catch it, arms spread wide and ribs aching from the sudden collision. “Thanks for the warning.”
Dru dusted off her hands. “I said ‘here’.”
Yael hurried over and dumped the rock on the ground in front of the open door. He turned to find Rowan staring at him, wide-eyed and incredulous. “How heavy is that?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Two hundred pounds?”
“How are you ribs not caved in?”
“I’m strong?” He hadn’t meant that to sound like a question, damnit. But he forgot that normal humans couldn’t throw rocks around as if they were golf balls or footballs or whatever.
She shot him a skeptical look and kicked the rock. He turned to signal Dru to get Azrael. The cambion flipped him off in response. Typical. He pretended not to notice Rowan frowning down at her foot. “Ready to go inside?” he asked.
Hopefully Dru would grab Azrael and Campbell, and meet them back here before they’d gone too far into the tomb. Yael was confident he could ensure they stayed safe for that long, at least. Hopefully longer.
It all depended on how well Rowan would listen to his warnings.
She grabbed a flashlight and walked toward the door. He hurried after her.
She probably won’t listen at all.
Damnit.
Stepping over the threshold, he hissed. It was like his skin was being pricked by thousands of needles, all at once.
“Did you feel it, too?” Rowan stood a little further in, shining the flashlight on the ground in front of her.
“Feel what?”
“Like you were being eaten alive by mosquitoes.”
“Yes.”
She turned around and angled the beam of light at the threshold. But there was nothing visible, not even to his Clear Sight spell. He had no idea what magic was at play here, but he hoped Azrael and Campbell would be able to navigate it.
A few steps into the passageway, Rowan was searching the floor with her flashlight.
“I thought I found something here before,” she said, “but I must have imagined it in all the chaos.” Her green eyes were shadowed in the dim light. “There. The skull.”
He looked down at it. It was demonic, that was for damned sure.
Rowan reached down to pick it up, but he shook his head. “Leave it. You can record it later.”
“But have you seen the deformities? It has to be some kind of fake, perhaps to warn people away.”
“Egyptians did have gods with animal body parts,” Yael commented, more to distract her than anything else. He didn’t want a debate about the skull—he needed to find Twosret and determine if she still had the Heart or not.
“True.” Rowan nodded resolutely to herself. “Let’s do some reconnaissance before we decide the next steps.”
Thank the skies. He didn’t want to have to drag her through the tomb.
They walked down the passageway, Rowan illuminating the path ahead, while Yael scanned the walls, floor and ceiling for any spells. There were few to no inscriptions on the walls, so at least there wouldn’t be many curses to worry about. There were spells, but most of them aimed at demonic entities, which was lucky.
Every now and then, he would touch Rowan’s arm, indicating she should move a little to the left or the right to avoid any magical traps. She shot him annoyed glances, but shifted without her usual protests. Maybe she was worried about booby traps; after all she had been caught in the tomb earlier.
They had barely walked fifty feet before the passageway turned into a chamber, maybe twenty feet square. It had four pillars and was packed with artifacts around the edges. Half-finished paintings and inscriptions lined the walls, and to his Clear Sight spell, the room blazed with magic. It was almost blindingly bright in the center, where a sarcophagus sat.
Please be Twosret, please be Twosret.
Adrenalin pulsed through him, his heartbeat increasing and his breath short. This was it. They were going to find the second piece of Heaven’s Heart and he was going to be one step closer to returning to Heaven.
He pulled on a pair of sunglasses so he could look at the sarcophagus in greater detail. It was stone—something shiny and soapy—with engravings all over it. On the arms were the wings of a bird, while a royal cartouche had been carved over the sternum.
“Twosret,” he read aloud.
Rowan turned to him, her eyes alight with excitement. “It’s her.” She paused. “Why are you wearing sunglasses?”
“Uhh—” He thought quickly, but his mind was blank.
Rowan took a step back and swung her backpack off her shoulder to dig around inside it. As she moved, she bumped into a jackal-headed statue of Anubis behind her. Yael saw the blaze of a spell and leaped toward her, his hand closing over her wrist as a magical flash lit up the entire chamber like the fourth of July.
“What the fuck just happened?” Yael let go of her hand and rubbed his eyes. They hurt, like he’d just been hit with a stun grenade.
“I can’t see!” Rowan cried.
Blinking quickly, trying to get everything back into focus, Yael dug around in his backpack for his first aid kit. He had just pulled out the tube of saline when Rowan let out a huge sigh. “It’s okay. I can see again. Did you know that was going to happen? Is that why you put the sunglasses on? What was it?”
“I have no idea,” Yael replied. “And no, that wasn’t why I put the shades on.” He took the glasses off. For some reason, everything was clear now—like the sun was shining right into the room, even though there was no light source aside from Rowan’s flashlight. The place certainly hadn’t been this well-lit a few minutes ago.
Rowan lowered her backpack to the ground and took out her camera. She took a few photographs of the sarcophagus, her forehead wrinkling when she looked into the viewfinder.
“What is it?”
“My camera just shows me a black screen
.”
“Maybe there’s not enough light?” What did he know about cameras?
“No…” She closed the distance to the sarcophagus and a placed gloved hand on top. “What the—?”
She fell through the center of the coffin with a scream.
Yael leaped forward…and stepped right into the sarcophagus like was it was a hologram.
“What the fuck?!”
Chapter 39
Rowan was sitting in the sarcophagus. Sitting. In. The. Sarcophagus. She was afraid to look around, in case she was in the middle of the mummy’s body.
A moment later, Yael stepped into the sarcophagus next to her.
“What’s happening?” she asked. Had Yael shoved some virtual reality equipment on her without her knowing? Or was she hallucinating after inhaling some bad spores?
“I don’t know.” Yael’s voice came from above her and outside the stone coffin. He held out a hand, and she took it.
He pulled her to her feet, and they both stepped back out of the sarcophagus. Yael rubbed his chin for a few moments, examining the room. Then he began touching things. Or trying to, anyway. His hand simple swiped through objects like they were illusions.
“I don’t understand.” She shook her head and wrapped her arms around her torso.
Yael strode to the door back into the passageway. His image flickered for a second, before he turned back to her. “I think we’ve been trapped.”
“Trapped? How?”
He returned to his bag and rummaged through it. “With magic.”
Rowan laughed. “You can’t be serious.”
“You just fell through a stone coffin. Explain that to me.” He raised an eyebrow at her, like she was the one coming out with the insane answers.
“I’m hallucinating.”
She had to be. What was she really doing? Standing in the room staring at a wall? When would the vision stop?
“Then we’re both hallucinating, cos I am trapped right here with you.”
Ascending Passion Page 19
