We were fucked, so very—

“Hey!”

My gaze shot to the upper level. I squinted against the brightness to make out a slender female figure.

“Cora?”

“How did you get in here?” Evelyn demanded. “Demons can’t get in.”

Cora winked out and then appeared on the podium beside the Nephilim, who was still standing with his eyes closed.

“That’s because I’m not a demon. I’m a fucking tulpa.” She jerked her head up. “And I’m fucking awesome at making friends.”

Dark shadowy forms spilled into the chamber. I caught the flash of talons and the razor edge of teeth, and then the shadowy forms were tearing into the Dread.

I had no idea what those things were, but fuck yes! “The symbol, Cor, you need to fuck it up.”

Cora crouched and rubbed at the glowing paint. A small section peeled away, and as soon as the circle was broken, the glow winked out. The Nephilim with the markings crumpled to the ground. My scythe vanished, and it was as if the breath had been knocked out of my lungs. Exhaustion settled on my shoulders.

Cora grabbed me in a hug as I staggered. “I got you,” she said.

“Who are your friends?” Mal asked.

“Later,” Cora said. “They’re hungry, so we best jet before they decide we look tasty too.”

Conah flicked his wrist, and nothing happened. “Scythes are down, too. We need to retreat.”

I looked up at the hole in the roof. “The roof is still warded.”

“I see it,” Mal said. “There’s a symbol on the wood around the aperture.”

“I can sort it,” Cora said. “Just get me there.”

Conah scooped her up, Azazel grabbed me, and we all flew up to the roof. It took a second for Cora to chip away the paint, and then we were free.

The reapers who’d been frantically circling the building swooped over to join us.

“What the fuck happened?” Sariah asked. Her wings beat the night to keep her in the air.

“Bad shit,” Mal said. “We need to get out of here.”

“What about the Dread.”

“Not today,” Azazel said.

“We’re out of juice.” I held up my hand. It fizzed with light, but no scythe appeared. “Get everyone away from here, stat.”

Sariah flew off, shouting orders to the other reapers.

“Let’s go home,” Conah said.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The feeling was slowly returning to my fingers, and the tingling numbness was gone.

Conah handed out glasses of what passed for whiskey here in the Underealm. I took mine gratefully and sipped. Fire raced down my throat and spread through my chest. I blinked back the tears that sprang to my eyes and held up the glass in salutation.

“Good stuff.”

The storm in Conah’s eyes receded a little. “It’ll get your blood flowing properly again,” he said.

“It’ll also put hairs on your chest,” Mal said, and then looked down his top. “Nope, that’s a lie.”

Azazel stood with his back to the flickering flames in the hearth. “They’re celestials.”

The room fell into silence.

Cora was the first to break it. “Well, at least you know their end game now. Question is how to stop them.”

Our comms beeped with a message from Uri.

The book contains the recipe for creating universal keys to unlock wards and portals.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Mal said. “Bit late now, Uri.”

“We have to get that book back,” Cora said.

I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. They have the knowledge now. If they survived being attacked by your new friends, they will try again.”

“What were those things?” Azazel asked.

“I’m not sure,” Cora said. “I think … I think they were once dreams.”

I stared at her. “Dreams?”

She smiled softly. “Like me … Except, they never quite made it to tulpa status. They were abandoned, and now they’re trapped in between. They would have killed me if they hadn’t sensed a kinship. They’re starving for life, but they refuse to hurt humans. They don’t want to hurt the innocent either. They sensed my innocence, I guess. It stopped them, and then I told them where they could find some inhuman wankers to feast on.”

“The Dread can’t be killed so easily,” Azazel reminded us. “And now we know why.”

“Do you think Uri knows?” Mal asked.

“I don’t know,” Azazel replied. “I don’t know how things work in the Beyond. But it’s obvious there is more to the story then the Nephilim and the third generation of Dread have been told. These original Dread are hiding something.”

I considered his train of thought. “You think they must have done something to be locked out of the Beyond?”

His shoulders rose and fell in a sigh. “I don’t know.”

Conah typed a message into his comm. “I’ve dispatched a recon team to scout the estate.”

There was silence once more as we all absorbed the fact that we, the Dominus, were now targets. That the Dread wouldn’t stop until they had the power of our scythes to create their key.

I looked up at Azazel. “So, we make a pact. We don’t go anywhere together, the four of us. And if one is taken, the others don’t go after him or her.” I met each of their gazes. “They need all of us. If they can’t get us together, they can’t complete the key. We need to swear to let one go to save the many.”

“To save the celestials, you mean,” Mal said with a curl of his lip. “Fuck them.”

I glared at him. “You want to risk the Beyond being taken over by Dread? Whatever you think about the celestials, they have humanity’s best interests at heart. We share a goal. Can you say the same for the Dread? We have no idea what havoc they intend to wreak if they get into the Beyond. Are you willing to take the risk?”

Mal made a sound of exasperation then gulped his whiskey. “No.”

“Then we’re agreed,” Conah said. “Never together outside of the Underealm.”

Azazel nodded.

“I kind of feel sorry for them,” Cora said. “They don’t belong here, and they’re trying to go home.” She locked gazes with me. “What if we’re wrong, though … What if they’re just trying to survive?”

The thought brought silence to the room again. We had no way of knowing. Even if Uri did know about the Dread, how much of what he knew would be accurate? He was a lower-tier celestial. Still, we needed to find out.

I tapped a message to Uri on my comm.

Meet me at Lumiers tomorrow at seven pm Necro time.

Cora stood and held her hand out to me. “Come on, babe, you need to get some sleep.”

I took her hand and allowed her to haul me up before pulling her into another hug. “Thank you for saving our asses out there.” I pulled back and looked into her cornflower-blue eyes. “I’m so fucking glad you came with us.”

“No doubt,” Mal said. “We’d be fucked without you.”

She swallowed, then fixed a smile on her face. “I guess you’ll just have to keep me around then, won’t you?”

“Forever.” I linked arms with her. “For always.”

Cyril

Fee and Cora are safe, and it warms my cold little reptilian heart. The churning in my gut calms as I watch them leave the lounge arm in arm, but I linger. I can taste the apprehension. It’s coming from the big male. Azazel is his name. But it’s more than apprehension. I flick my tongue out and taste fear.

I’m intrigued. What has the monolith got to fear?

“You’re going to do it, aren’t you?” Mal says.

Conah pinches the bridge of his nose. I slide closer to the vent grill to see better. Expressions are just as important as tone, or so I’ve come to realize of late. The vents have yielded many secrets, and not all of them are to be shared.

“I have to,” Azazel says. “Now, more than ever. The protection will save her from the Loup and from Lilith. Then we can worry about the Dread without looking over our shoulders constantly.”

“Let me pay the price,” Mal says. “Hell, I’ll enjoy it. Pain is my bitch.”

Azazel grimaces. “I’m not afraid of pain.”

There’s silence.

“How long has it been?” Mal asks.

“None of your fucking business,” Azazel snaps.

“Why you?” Conah asks. “Do you have history with the witch?”

“I believe she likes the way I look.”

“She wants his cock, brother,” Mal says, but he sounds almost angry. “So now we whore him out for her.”

“Cut the bullshit,” Azazel said. “You’d do the same for her.”

“And I hate myself for it.”

“Annabeth is a bitch.” Conah’s tone is saturated with venom. “There must be someone else we can use to create the enchantment?”

“There was, but rumor has it Annabeth killed her,” Azazel says wearily.

“Rue Mort is a shitty place,” Mal says. “And the bloodwitch is a bitch.”

“It’s one night out of each month. One night to keep the amulet charged.” Azazel stands tall. “To keep Fee hidden.”

“The things you do for Lilith …” There is a sly edge to Mal’s tone.

“Not for Lilith …” Azazel says so softly I almost don’t catch it. “For Fee.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

I woke up to sun streaming across my room and Cyril’s narrow reptilian face way too close to mine.

“Tha fuck …” My speech was slurred with sleep. “Backthafuckup.”

“Fee,” he said. “I think sssomething bad is about to happen to Azazel.”

I was instantly wide awake. “Spy mode?”