SIXTY-FIVE
Freed from Josephine’s telekinesis, Rune traced to Thaddeus. “Hand her over to me.” He was all but begging with his bow shouldered and his palms up.
Thad ghosted with his unconscious sister in his arms, making her intangible as well. Rune couldn’t snatch her away. He’d never wanted to fight so badly. Never had so many reasons why he couldn’t.
The boy’s eyes darted. “Who the hell are you?” As soon as Thad had figured out Josephine’s identity, he’d gone from attacking to protecting her.
“I’m her mate,” Rune rasped. “Give her to me.”
When the other Møriør flanked Rune—in battle positions—Thad hissed.
Valkyries screamed from inside: “Bring her back to us!” “You won!” “You took that bitch down!”
Baring his fangs, Thad pulled Josephine closer to him.
Sounding as calm and reasonable as ever, Blace said, “We won’t hurt you, boy. We mean no harm to you or your sister.”
Allixta said telepathically, —Speak for yourself. He bares his fangs at Møriør?— An iridescent green light filled her palms.
—Can you hold him?— Rune asked her. —Without hurting him? Please, witch! He could trace her anywhere in the universe.—
She raised her hands, and slender tendrils of green slithered around Thad, through him, but he didn’t seem to feel them, just gazed on warily.
—Amazing,— Allixta said. —Even one of my power can’t touch a shapeshifter like him.—
The boy’s mouth dropped open when Curses joined them. The creature wound between the Møriør, its movements predatory.
—Control your beast, Allixta!— Rune eased closer to Thad. “Brother, I need you to . . . just give her to me.”
“Not a chance, mister. It looked like she was using telekinesis to keep you away.”
“I need to explain some things to her. And she’s injured. She must feed from me.”
Thad was on the verge of tracing.
“Wait! Please! If you go, take this.” Rune drew out his talisman. “Give it to her. I want her to have it.”
Sian muttered aloud, “Hells.”
The others understood the significance of the talisman. It had always reminded Rune to look toward the future; Josephine is my future. “She’ll know what it means.” He tossed it to Thad.
The boy caught it telekinetically, pulling it to his hand. Then he traced his sister away.
“Gods damn it!” Rune yelled. “I have no idea where he will take her.” He leveled his gaze on Val Hall, on the wraiths that had resumed their guard. —Nïx will know.— He unstrapped his bow, nocking the phoenix arrow.
—There are more than just Valkyries inside,— Sian said. —Orion hasn’t officially declared war on any of these factions yet.—
—Neutralize the wraiths, and then we’ll reevaluate.— Welcome counsel from Blace. —After all, the arrow might not work.—
—Use the arrow to reach your target, then destroy her,— Allixta said. —As you told Orion you would do weeks ago. Have you forgotten your mission?—
Rune drew the bowstring past his chin. No shot was more important than this one. He was as nervous as he’d been when first going to battle with a bow.
A flash memory of Orion: “Make your first shot count, archer. You’ll remember it for the rest of your immortal life.”
Rune had; Rune did.
—Let your arrow fly,— Blace murmured.
Rune relaxed his string fingers to loose the most perfect arrow he’d ever fired. On any other occasion, his heart would’ve soared at the precision of its flight.
Now he only wanted destruction. He got it.
The shockwave slammed into him, nearly laying him out. Sian shielded Allixta; Blace traced past the blast. Darach growled at it. Curses dug its claws into the ground.
The wraiths were scattered through the air! They lay dazed, hovering in different positions like a floating battlefield of dead. Val Hall’s front door was wide open.
Nïx called in a cheery voice, “I’ll be right with you, Møriør! Have to take my curlers out!”
Through the doorway, Rune could see legs jutting from under a couch. A woman wriggled out and popped to her feet.
Nïx?
Her hair looked as if she’d dust-mopped with her head, and her eyes were hazy. She told unseen beings, “I’ll just be a moment. I’d like to talk with them privately. Enjoy the hors d’oeuvres that don’t exist because Valkyries don’t eat.”
As she emerged from the hall, lightning shot toward her, bolts jagging down, seeming to plant inside her body. They projected all around her like the heads of a hydra. She wore a black leather skirt and boots—with a breastplate.
The design was olden, the metal heavily engraved. Lightning reflected in the glimmering surface. An anatomical heart had been etched into the center. Among the many shapes, he spied . . . a feather.
Has all this been planned? He nocked his last black arrow—one-and-done.
Nïx nodded at Rune, stopping a few dozen feet away. That bat of hers glided between lightning bolts to land on her shoulder. When a drift of dust settled on its fur, it sneezed.
Allixta arched a brow. —This is the primordial Valkyrie?—
“Greetings, Bringers of Doom. I’m Phenïx, soon to be the goddess of Accessions. I just have one little task left to kill.”
—Phenïx?— Blace said. —Is that her full name? And you had that feather?—
Sian bared his fangs. —We are not to be toyed with.—
Allixta’s magick deepened, steeping the air. —Take her out, baneblood.—
—I need information first.— And he doubted his arrow could breach the lightning.
—You were serious about that?— Allixta demanded. —You have the shot; Orion ordered you to assassinate her.—
Blace shook his head. —We need to find Rune’s mate. Nïx will know.— The vampire was siding with him on this?
Though Darach revered matehood, he said, —Shoot. Find mate later.—
—Find? So easily, then?— Blace scowled. —Says the male who’s never lost anything.—
—Life.—
—Yes. You did lose your life, I suppose.—
—Sian, back me up!— Allixta turned to the demon. —Do we now complete only the convenient missions? Obey only the dictates with which we agree?—
—We will find your mate eventually, Rune,— Sian said. —But you’ll never get a shot like this again.—
—Her lightning will burn my arrow. The bonedeath is my only option.—
—Then use it.— Allixta said.
The Møriør had always been a unified front. Now they were at cross-purposes. And as they argued, other immortals filed out of Val Hall behind Nïx.
Two dozen Valkyries: one glowing, one carrying an extraordinary-looking bow, others with swords. A Fury among them had wings of fire.
When a contingent of fey archers followed, Rune said, —Draiksulians.— From the source dimension of all fey, the root of their slaving empire.
Ten Lykae emerged next, each one on the verge of turning. Their eyes were ice blue with aggression.
Darach said only, —Descendants.— He was half-turned himself, his body nine feet tall, his own eyes blue. His burgeoning muscles ripped his tunic in several places; he clawed it away.
Those Gaia Lykae scented the air, growling. Did they not recognize Darach Lyka, the alpha of their entire species?
Blace nodded at several vampires who’d suddenly appeared, joining the ranks. —Forbearers, and a red-eyed natural-born. I recognize him. Lothaire. Powerful. Basically the primordial here. The female with him is vampire as well.—
The clear-eyed vampires kept Lothaire in their lowering sights, muttering something about the “Gravewalker.”
Nïx’s Vertas alliance already had deep fractures within it.
Sian brandished his war ax when demons appeared, their horns sharp with hostility. The muscular males bared their fangs. —Rage demons stand against us? Do they not comprehend what they guard in Rothkalina? And for whom?—
Allixta’s palms grew hotter when females exited the manor with their own hands alight. —None of these witches have paid their taxes. None have permits. Yet they threaten hexes against their Overlady?— Curses hissed, prowling back and forth.
—So we’re to draw battle lines?— Blace slipped his sword free. —This early?—
Sian twirled his ax. —What will it take to actually encounter a challenge?—
—They’re not without their strengths,— Allixta said. —The witch with mirrors for eyes killed a Wiccae deity. I sense those divine magicks from here. She’ll never be able to afford them.—
—We don’t have time for this.— Rune switched one-and-done for a bonedeath arrow, aiming at the ground near Val Hall.
Nïx canted her head, revealing her feylike ear. “Where are my manners? Can I offer you something to eat or drink? We have many nonexistent hors d’oeuvres.”
“I want Josephine,” Rune told the Valkyrie. “I know you see her even now.”
“You know know? Ah, another psychic! Why should I tell you? She didn’t even thank me before leaving. Rude phanpire.”
“Thank you? For the punishment you meted out to her?”
The Valkyrie’s eyes blazed silver. “I taught her.”
“Don’t play games with me, Nïx.”
“Hmm? Something to drink or eat?”
“Tell me where Thaddeus took my mate.”
“To a place you will never find,” she said. “The District of the Gold, Purple, and Green Gardens.”
Snickers sounded behind her.
—This is amusing to them?— Allixta was spoiling for a kill. —How will those witchlings feel once I put a lien on their abilities? When all the spells they’ve ever cast boomerang back upon them? Their ‘House of Witches’ will crumble in a time of nightmares. The tax lady cometh.—
Nïx gestured back at Val Hall. “Tsk tsk, Rune, you and your mate didn’t leave this place as you found it.”
The mighty oaks were strewn about like driftwood, the wraiths still dazed above. Upended cars crowded the property.
“But,” Nïx said, “we remain.”
Allixta conjured a larger beam of magick. —Easily remedied.— Addressing everyone, she said, “Trifling beings, you are presently beneath my boot heel; you just don’t have the awareness to grasp your own doom. We are the bringers of it.”
Lothaire, the red-eyed vampire, laughed. “Well, I like them already.” At others’ glares, he added, “What? That sounds like something I would have said. With, of course, a dash more verve.” Then he asked Nïx, “Are we going to war or not? If we don’t, this exercise is tedious enough to count as repayment, soothsayer.”
Nïx absently told him, “Always with the payments, Enemy of Old.”
Rune asked the Valkyrie, “You know what my arrow will do?”
She nodded happily. “It will pulverize all our bones, and nothing will ever heal us.”
Lothaire said, “That sounds unpleasant. This is what we get for planning a fair fucking fight. We deserve nothing less.” To his female, he said, “Trace the hell away from here. Now.”
Rune drew his bowstring. “Tell me where Josephine is.”
The lightning bolts around Nïx flared and expanded. “I’ll never let that arrow hit the ground. I’ll deflect it with my lightning—or my very body.”
—Can she do this?— Blace asked.
Rune said, —Yes.—
“And if you kill me,” Nïx continued, “your poor mate won’t be a blood drinker anymore, will she?”
Blace stiffened beside Rune. —What is she speaking of?—
—Josephine made a vow to the Lore not to drink if I went about the mission to kill Nïx without her.—
Blace narrowed his eyes. —Then you can’t target this Valkyrie.—
Sian said, —I can.—
Allixta added, —As can I. The demon and I will wipe out this entire force.—
Blace pointed out, —Orion never commanded us to war here. Not yet.—
One of the wraiths had begun to stir. It drifted over and materialized a massive braid of hair, as if pulling it from the ether, then dropped it at Nïx’s feet. The braid was as long as Uthyr’s tail. Locks of all different colors had been plaited into it.
The Valkyries’ payments to the Scourge.
Nïx’s hands flew to her cheeks in mock surprise. “But whatever could this be?” She toed the braid. “Are we starting our bar tab over? We did, after all, pay for continuous protection, and wraiths are levitating on the job right above us.” She confided to Rune, “It is so hard to find good help these days.” To the Scourge, she called, “Such a shame for you, when we were only one toll away from enslavement.” She gave Rune a broad wink.
She might as well have booted him in the balls. —She set all this up. The wraiths were about to exact their payment. She couldn’t do anything to them, so she put me into play, a pawn.—
For the first time, he wondered if this Valkyrie warlord had a shot at victory. If she ever grew coherent . . .
She stroked the bat on her shoulder, brushing away dust. “Rune, you’re testing the limits of your mate’s vow just by being here without her. Only one way to reverse this damage.”
“How?” he grated.
“You vow to the Lore never to kill me. That would end your mission, nullifying her vow.”
—She played me utterly.— He’d already lessened his utility to the Møriør this night. Now he would reduce it further? Would Nïx go down the line, neutralizing the Møriør one at a time until none were free to take her out?
He yearned to kill her just to rid his allies of her. His fingers tightened on his bow. Was he about to fail Orion for the first time?
“Before it’s too late,” Nïx said. “To sweeten the pot, everyone leaves in peace tonight.”
Allixta’s eyes flashed. “You presume to dictate terms—to us?”
“Yes, least-favorite-Wiccan-person. Until you return with the monsters you keep in Perdishian. Until you return with our Undoing. But my warlocks are working on a shield.” Some of the Vertas immortals cast her questioning looks at that. Lothaire appeared amused. “I’ve heard it’s challenging to take over a world—when you can’t reach it.”
This was a threat Rune would normally investigate and contain. For now, all he could do was pop his arrow off the string and slide it into his quiver.
“Chin up, Rune,” Nïx said. “You don’t really want to kill me. If you do, I will rise in memory and wallow in power. All the factions of Gaia will unite under my banner.”
“Very well, soothsayer.”
Allixta snapped, —Don’t you dare, baneblood!—
“And no qualifiers, if you please,” Nïx said. “This is for your mate’s health and safety.”
Gods damn it. “I vow to the Lore never to target you for death.”
“Excellent.” Nïx smiled. “That wasn’t so hard, now, was it? Perhaps you’d like to go even further? Come, archer, step over to our side. Become one of the good guys.”
“Good? Valkyrie, you have no idea what you’re doing. You’re far too young and confused to understand the ramifications of your actions. You spoke of the monsters we keep in Perdishian? They display more reason than you.”
—Except for Kolossós,— Sian, Blace, and Allixta said as one. Darach grunted his agreement.
As if Rune hadn’t spoken, Nïx said, “Join us, and I’ll give you a signing bonus, tell you what the symbols on your talisman mean, what powers it doesn’t hold. Maybe I could fill in the blanks of your mother’s last letter to you.”
Nïx knew? “I’m Møriør,” Rune said simply. Orion might punish him for making that vow, but he still had Rune’s loyalty.
“I understand,” Nïx said, tucking her hair behind her pointed ear. “You can’t blame me for trying. To win this war, I’ll use every trick in my tricksy little bag of tricks.” She faced Sian and mouthed, Hold on to your ass, demon.
He answered with a killing look.
Then she whispered to her bat, “Evac, Bertil.” With a screech, it flew off.
Rune told Nïx, “Whatever your interest in Josephine is, retire it. She and Thaddeus are with us.”
—Scent.— Darach sounded like he was on the very brink of a full turning. —Mate.—
Rune tensed. —You have Josephine’s scent?—
He nodded. —Close.—
—We’ll start in the city. I’ll trace you all.— They clamped hands on his shoulders and forearms.
—We flee like cowards now?— Allixta said as Darach growled. But those two couldn’t trace, had no choice but to come.
With one hand, Allixta grabbed Rune. With her other, she seized one of Curses’ whiskers in her fist. —Fine!—
—We’ll return,— Blace said. —This fight is young yet. For tonight, we are done here.—
Darach wasn’t.
He inhaled a long breath, his immense lungs expanding.
—Oh, fuck.— Rune and the others braced.
With a gleam in her eyes, Allixta said, —Huff and puff, primordial. Do it!—
The wolf released his roar. A primal blast.
Nïx’s lightning protected her, but beyond . . .
The gust scattered yelling immortals and swept the beleaguered wraiths across the night sky like flecks of dust. The force sent the manor’s roof flying like a disk. Boards groaned, glass shattering. Walls collapsed.
Just as the deafening demolition quieted . . . the chimney crumpled.
Darach had flattened the manor. Val Hall was no more. The Valkyrie leader stood against a backdrop of destruction.
Rune nodded at her. “Good warring to you, Nïx.”
She smiled blankly. “And a happy Accession to you, Rune.”