The Darkest Secret

He sensed her approach and started forward. She remained close on his heels as they left her new favorite place in the world. They should have entered another cave, a rocky hal way at the very least.



That’s what had happened every time before. This time, however, they entered—no, surely not. She shook her head, blinked her eyes. She couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was seeing, but the image never varied.



A…circus? Amun asked, incredulous.



He saw it, too, then. A freaking circus. Unreal! After the Realm of Shadows, a circus seemed like a spa vacation.



Seriously. The restrictive wal s of the underground had given way, stretching into what seemed to be a pretty, moonlit night. Stars even twinkled from their perch in the black-velvet sky, a cool breeze dancing past.



A moon…a sky…in a cave. How? She stopped wondering when she saw that several fires crackled nearby, and there were bearded women and jaundiced-eyed men holding their hands inside the actual flames, watching her and Amun with palpable menace.



Okay, so “spa vacation” had been the wrong term to use.



“Amun?”



I don’t know, he said, answering her unasked question.



What the hel was going on?



Too-tal men with legs that knifed toward the sky walked by them, thankful y paying them no heed. The animals they led, however…the elephant whined, its trunk lifting, revealing fangs sharper than any demon’s. Worse, there were several winged lions, two unicorns that were foaming at the mouth and three crocodiles with blades rather than scales protruding from their backs. Each of the animals was bound to the men by a fraying rope—and each was fighting for freedom, their gazes locked on her, the tasty-looking human.



She gulped, glanced away for fear of egging them on. “I don’t like this.”



I won’t let anything bad happen to you.



Just like I won’t let anything bad happen to you, she thought.



Tent after tent lined either side of her, a graveled pathway between them. At the end of that pathway was a booth, and inside that booth sat an obese man in a sweat-stained wifebeater. A neon sign flashed above him. ADMISSION: ONE HUMAN HEART.



I understand now, Amun told her flatly. We’ve reached the Realm of Destruction.



Another realm. She almost groaned. “None of this was here last night,” she said. “I would have noticed on our way into the cave.”



Wel , it’s here now.



No denying that. But how? Did she and Amun not actual y have to hike anywhere to reach a new realm?



Could the realms simply come to them? How odd, if so. Was that normal?



Was anything normal in hel ? she thought with a humorless laugh.



They stopped at the booth.



“You want tickets or not?” the sweating man demanded in a voice so low, so deep, there were echoes of darkness bubbling beneath the surface.



Shuddering, Haidee opened her mouth to shout, “Hel , no,”



but Amun’s next words stopped her. Tel him yes.



Damn it. Why? Just then, she hated that their mind-connection didn’t go both ways. “Yes,” she forced herself to say. “We want tickets.”



Glittering red eyes swept over them both. He raised his arm, fingers opening to reveal a dul , bloodstained blade in his palm. “First, I’l need your hearts.”



“His heart isn’t human,” Haidee said, jabbing her thumb in Amun’s direction.



The big man gave Haidee his ful attention and licked his greasy lips. “Yours wil do. You can pay for him another way.” He stroked himself. “Know what I mean?”



Amun stiffened, and suddenly utter menace poured from him. Take what we need from the backpack, he said. His timbre was flat, but al the more fiery for it.



She pul ed the backpack forward. I need two—she gulped



—human hearts, she thought and reached inside. What would she do if nothing—



She almost gagged when she encountered two warm, velvet-wrapped…things. “Paying another way won’t be necessary.” She did gag when she handed both to the man, and he greedily ripped away the material to view the stil -



thumping organs inside. And when he tore a hunk from both with his teeth, tasting the tissue as he would a fine wine, she had to swal ow a surge of bile.



He nodded in satisfaction, al three of his chins bobbing with the movement. “Go ahead and pass.” An evil grin split his lips, and she saw the crimson…food stuck between his teeth. “Enjoy yourselves, you hear? I have a real good feeling the performers’l enjoy you.”



For a moment, she could only stare at him. He loved to torture females and animals—in that order. How she knew, she couldn’t have said. She just knew. And she wanted to kil him. Badly.



Why shouldn’t she? she thought next, her skin chil ing several degrees. She was loaded down with blades. A simple jab, jab and he would—



You can’t kil him, Amun told her.



Her eyes widened. How had he known what she was planning? Could he now read her thoughts? Or had his demon—his demon, she thought, nodding. Secrets. There was a warm, dark cloud whisking through her head. The same warm, dark cloud she’d noticed the two times Amun had shown her bits and pieces of her past.



That’s how she knew about the man. That’s why her temperature had dropped.



When the demon claimed Amun’s attention, or sought her own, his skin warmed and hers chil ed, the same as when they were making love. Right now, Amun was practical y on fire.



“You just gonna stand there?” the beefy man cackled, dragging her from her thoughts.



Shit! She’d al owed herself to be distracted. “Why can’t I kil him?”



Come on. Amun twined their fingers and started forward, maneuvering around the man—only to twist and strike with his free hand, embedding a blade in the man’s spinal cord.



Crack. There was a gurgle, that beefy body convulsing, slumping, fal ing over. Skin turned to ash, and bone to liquid, the ash drifting away in the breeze, the liquid forming a black, oozing puddle. Oh, and to answer your question, you couldn’t kil him because the privilege belonged to me.



When Amun straightened, looking anywhere but at Haidee, he once again started forward. She could only gape up at him, astonished. “Why’d you get the privilege?”



He planned to find you later and…do things to you.



“How do you know?” She knew the answer before she finished asking the question. His demon. Again.



I told you. I read al minds but yours.



“I remember.” She pushed out a breath. “And thank you.”



Thank you? You don’t think me malicious? I just kil ed in cold blood.



“Malicious? For avenging me? No.” Amun must have forgotten that she had wanted to plant a blade in the man, too. “I think you’re sweet and maybe even went a little easy on the bastard. I would have forced him to eat his own intestines.”



A warm chuckle drifted through her mind as Amun’s fingers squeezed hers in thanks of his own. He’d truly expected her to balk, she realized. Later, she would have to tel him about some of the things she had done over the years, al in the name of vengeance and, foolishly, world peace.



As if the world would be a better place without Amun.



They remained on the gravel path for several minutes. Over and over Haidee’s attention strayed as she searched for the animals she’d seen earlier. She expected them to reappear and launch at her, jaws snapping. Constantly she tripped, but Amun never let her fal . Even better, he never berated her for her lack of concentration as Micah would have done. To him, it was mission first, feelings second.



When you were stalking evil or being stalked by evil yourself, you were to think only of destroying that evil. You weren’t to worry about any physical pain you might suffer.



You weren’t to consider what might happen to the innocents around you. And most assuredly, you weren’t to place your fate in anyone else’s hands.



“Come,” a withered female in front of one of the tents suddenly cal ed. “I tel you what awaits. You pay me with a scream.”



Haidee replied before she could think better of it. “I’m not screaming.”



“You wil . Oh, you wil .” A gnarled finger pointed at her, and a cackling laugh sounded. “Best go no farther, hateful girl.



Death, death is what awaits you. And pain, so much pain.



Soon. Soon you pay me.”



The prediction was so close to what Haidee had endured countless times in the past, she couldn’t shake a sudden sense of unease. Soon, the old crone had said, and the urge to rush over there and shake the woman, to demand answers, overwhelmed her. She would shake the bitch, she thought, starting forward.



“Oh, I’l pay you al right.”



Cackling.



Distantly, she thought she felt something—someone, Amun



—tugging at her back. She didn’t care. Couldn’t care.



When she tried to pul from Amun’s hold, he tightened his grip.



“I have to go to her. Have to—”



Don’t listen to her. Remember what the angel told us? Trust no one.



It took a superhuman effort, but Haidee managed to stop and look away from that stooped body. The moment she did, the overwhelming urge left her. “Thank you. Again.”



There’s no need to thank me, Haidee. He stuffed a piece of paper in his pocket. Come on.



He ushered her off the pathway. He zigzagged and ducked behind the tents, always maintaining a tight grip on her. She had been chased over the years and had chased others, so she knew what he was doing. Preventing anyone from locking on them, their every move random, unpredictable.



“What’s the game plan?” she asked.



While you chatted with the self-professed seer, I had the pack provide instructions for successful y navigating this place.



“And?” she asked.



Another scrol . It said we must find the Horsemen.



Horsemen? “I don’t understand.”



We must find the Horsemen, he repeated. Of the Apocalypse.



Oh, dear God. “You’re kidding me.” Please let him be kidding.