A hulking, winged monster stepped out of the shadows, puffs of steam clouding before him as his golden snout came into view.

Alaric Slate.

This was Anubis’ definition of repayment? The old Dragon King stared at me with so much hatred, I should have just dropped dead.

“Temple…” he growled. “Oh, I’ve wanted to talk to you for quite some time.”

“Funny. I had forgotten all about you, Al.”

He snorted angrily at the nickname. I somehow managed to not feel guilty about it. “How is my son? That conniving black stain on my family tree?”

I tapped my lip, thinking. “Oh, Raego? He’s doing wonderful. The dragons worship him, talking about how much better things are with Weird Al gone. Did you know he gave me a medal for taking you out? I would show you, but I must have left it on my trophy case back home. Oh, and I redecorated my throw pillows with some really flashy golden scales.” I eyed him, frowning. “Kind of just like those,” I said, pointing at him.

His eyes crackled with fire, but then he began to laugh. “Humor. I had forgotten about that. You just don’t understand, do you? You can’t die here. We get to fight each other for eternity… And… you without magic… Oh, this isn’t Hell. This is HEAVEN!” he roared.

I blinked, frowning. What? No magic? I reached for my power and… felt nothing. Not even a whisper of it. I concealed my panic as I tried to tap into my Fae powers.

Nothing.

Alaric continued to laugh, each outburst like a punch to my soul.

What the hell kind of repayment was this? I swore to myself, right there, that I would kill Anubis if I ever got the chance. I would spend eternity making his life miserable. Somehow. Anything I could do to make him regret this. After all that talk, almost sounding like he regretted my plight. My failure. The bastard had conned me, and was likely laughing his ass off right now.

I needed to stall. I still had my satchel. Maybe something inside could help me. Not forever, but enough to give me time to think. Even the best blade wouldn’t last for an eternity of heavy, daily use against a powerful golden dragon.

“Were you close with Gertrude?” I asked, stalling.

Alaric snorted, caught off guard. “That viperous bitch would betray anyone for power. It’s why I banished her.” I frowned, not being aware of that. “But then if I had remembered how much she hated your family, I might have sent her to St. Louis ahead of me to take you out. Or die trying,” he muttered, not sounding as if he cared one way or another.

“Why would she hate me?” I asked, actually interested in the answer. I hadn’t met her until after I killed Alaric, so how could she have hated me before that?

Alaric prowled in a slow circle around me, licking his lips. “Your parents. They stole from her. A blade of some kind. But it was the principle of the matter. She didn’t like anyone making her look the fool.”

Not that it did me any good now, but I cursed my fiendish, thieving parents.

“How about we don’t fight?” I said, keeping my eyes on him as he continued to circle me. “Might be roommates for a while. Would suck for you to walk around like a cripple forever. Literally forever. We could draw a line down the middle of the cave or something,” I said, quickly checking my surroundings. Only rock walls surrounded us, obviously, but something about the space directly behind him seemed different. A slightly different color to the wall.

Alaric noted my attention. “I wouldn’t get too close to that door. If you get close enough you can somewhat hear the poor bastard on the other side. Then again, you won’t have any time for exploring, what with the never-ending death you’ll be experiencing.”

“What does it feel like? To die and keep coming back? Is it like when you lizards lose a tail?”

He licked his long teeth in a relishing gesture. “You’ll see soon enough. Not a pleasant experience, but you’ll get used to it. Kind of.” He let out a low laugh, crouching low in readiness to pounce. “This is the first joy I’ve experienced since you put me here. I’m going to savor it.”

He launched himself at my face. I had already shoved my hand into my satchel, thinking desperately for anything that could help me. Something strong enough to keep this fucker away long enough for me to find a way out of this shithole. Because as impossible as it seemed, my only other option was to deal with this motherfucker for eternity.

I’d rather opt for the hopeless escape plan.

My hand latched around an unfamiliar haft of wood and I yanked it out.

A black spear appeared from those bottomless depths, throbbing faintly under my palms. I didn’t have time to question it, but I knew for a fact I hadn’t put it in there. The last I had seen it had been in the Armory. Sneaky, sneaky Pandora. I spun the spear as I lunged out of his swipe, the spear feather-light in my hands as it scored across his shoulder. He hissed in outrage, and the red gem on the stone throbbed as if eager for more blood.

Or as if drinking his injury.

We both frowned at that.

Then it winked out.

He laughed, and backhanded me into the wall behind me. I slammed into the stone, seeing stars. He didn’t wait for me to recover, slicing across my stomach with his claws. I groaned in agony, falling to my knees. I stared down at my open stomach, the death blow.

I could see – quite too clearly for my taste – my insides.

And how torn and shredded they suddenly were. I gasped as I bled out, watching in shock as Alaric calmly walked back up to that wall and sat on his haunches, smiling at me. Waiting for me to die and come back. I struggled to hold onto my spear, using it was the only thing keeping me from falling over. I stared up at the black blade, too disgusted to continue looking at my wound.

It was the spear I had seen in the Armory. The intricate one with the red gem in the center of the wide, almost axe-like blade. It kind of looked similar to Talon’s white spear. Except he didn’t have a giant gem in his. Mine was cooler.

Not that it mattered now. My strength drained out of me as I slowly died. I fumbled with my satchel awkwardly, remembering that I had something I was going to grab before that golden taxi across the street hit me. And why was it parked facing me?

What was that rushing noise?

A traffic light above me flashed red and then fell, slamming into my stomach.

Of all the damned luck. St. Louis drivers were the worst!