Silver-Tongued Devil (40 page)

But this was one battle I had to fight alone. One I might not be able to return from even if I somehow managed to win. But I didn’t have a choice. Again. Fucking fate had screwed me again.

“Yeah,” I said finally. “Do we need to go back to the chapel?”

“Yes.” She rubbed her lip for a moment, thinking it over. “It’ll go better if we make another offering to Asclepius. He might be able to help once you’re in the Liminal.”

The false optimism in her tone told me she already expected to be mourning me too soon. But she also knew I would go through with the plan despite both our fears. If I was going to be trapped in the Liminal forever, fine. I’d just spend eternity kicking Cain’s ass and making sure he never tormented anyone I loved again.

Giguhl emerged from the closet. “What’s going on?”

I turned and frowned at him. “I thought you were staying with Adam?”

The demon shrugged. “He said he needed a minute alone.”

“We’re talking about Sabina going into the Liminal to hunt down Cain,” Rhea said.

The demon’s scraggly brows rose. “Since when can you access the in-between?”

I paused. How had I not told him about this earlier? Guess he’d been right when he said it’d been too long since we’d really hung out. I’d allowed us to drift too far apart. But now was not the time for sentimentality or regrets. Now was the time for action.

“It’s a long story,” I said. Then I paused. “Wait, how do you know about the Liminal?”

“Are you kidding?” he said, waving a claw. “It’s like the rest stop between your world and Irkalla. I’ve been there lots of times.”

“You’ve never gotten lost?”

He frowned. “Of course not. You know as well as I do that whoever summons me controls me. Even if I wanted to hang out there for a while, I couldn’t if you told me to leave.”

My mouth fell open. I slowly turned to look at Rhea. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

A slow smile spread across the elder’s face. “Let’s get moving.”

The three of us turned to grab Adam and head to the chapel, but the doors to the studio burst open. The Queen’s knights rushed in like commandos storming a hostage situation. When they saw the three of us standing there frowning at them, they skittered to a halt. “Hold it right there,” their leader demanded.

I didn’t have time to argue, so I raised my hands. My companions followed suit.

The shout of “all clear” echoed back through the ranks until they parted to allow the Queen through. Alexis was by her side, looking shell-shocked to see the scene in the studio. Their eyes took in the four dead mages, the canvases filled with murder, and my bloody, naked twin unconscious on the ground.

Adam came out of the closet to see what the racket was and stopped just beyond the doorway. “What the hell’s going on?”

The Queen raised a ringed finger. “What happened to you?”

Adam shook his head and blew out an annoyed breath. “If it’s all the same to you, I really don’t have the energy to explain it again.”

“And we definitely don’t have the time,” Rhea said.

The Queen’s eyes narrowed. “Mind your tone, Rhea.”

“No, you mind yours,
Maeve
.” The silver-haired mage rose up to her full height and infused her tone with dignity. “Now, you can get your crown in a twist and throw a tantrum because we’d rather stop a murderer than bow and scrape before you. Or you can shut the hell up and let us do what needs to be done. Either way, you will not stop us. However, if you go with plan B we will explain what’s happening on our way to the chapel.”

The Queen’s mouth fell open so wide a small family of birds could have taken nest in her maw. “Well, I never.”

“That much is clear,” Rhea said. “So what will it be?”

The Queen’s eyes narrowed. But instead of calling for Rhea’s head or whatever it is monarchs do, she scanned the room. Whatever she saw, which frankly could have been one of a thousand different damning details, must have convinced her we were more than prepared to handle the situation. Finally, she cleared her throat and nodded her head regally. “Lead the way.”

35

A
chill seeped from the stone floor and up through the thin cotton pallet. Maisie’s still form lay a few feet away. Our positions brought on a wave of
déjà vu
. My memory flew back to another ritual space, in another town. To another night when both our lives had hung in the balance.

In New Orleans, our grandmother had chained Maisie and me to altars and then forced me to watch as Maisie fed from Adam. That moment wasn’t the beginning of our issues, but it certainly took them to a new level. The image of my sister feeding off the mage I loved was the one that haunted me every night when I closed my eyes. It was the one I dreamed about. The one that made me wake up covered in sweat and grasping desperately for Adam to reassure myself he was still alive.

And there we were, months later, lying in almost the exact same position. Only this time, there were no physical bodies to fight. Only nightmares.

My willingness to fight this battle didn’t prevent the cold sweat on my chest or the urge to jump up and run away. Gods only knew what horrors waited for me in the dreams that had become my sister’s prison.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Adam’s color was better, thanks to a potion Rhea mixed up for him. But his eyes still had shadows that I worried might never go away.

“No.” I forced a wobbly smile. “But I’m going to do it anyway.”

He caressed my cheek with his palm. “Do you remember when you said I didn’t love all of you?”

I swallowed hard against the knot of regret in my throat. “Adam—”

“Hush, let me finish.” He placed a finger over my lips. “It’s not that I don’t love the reckless, dark parts of you. They’re what make you brave and I love that about you. But the truth is they also scare the hell out of me.”

“Why?” I whispered.

“Because deep down I’ve always known the day would come when they would take you away from me.” He paused. “I thought that if I could get you to leave that part of yourself behind, you’d stay forever. But I see now I only managed to push you away sooner.”

I sat up and pressed my lips to his. My hands twined up into his hair. I tried to put a lifetime into that kiss. Just in case. “You listen to me, Adam Lazarus,” I whispered against his lips. “When I return, we’ll have plenty of adventures. Together.”

“I’m holding you to that.” He grabbed me by the chin and forced me to look in his eyes. “Come back to me.”

Emotion gathered in my throat like bile. My dry eyes stung. This wasn’t new, this sinking feeling. It was so familiar now that I knew better than to indulge it. “It’s a deal.”

Too soon, he pulled away. Retreated to the rear of the temple. His gaze held mine as Rhea moved in to begin the ritual. I was so tired of saying good-bye, maybe forever, to him. Used to be that pain involved fist to flesh or snapped bones. Physical pain. Easy pain. But now? It had been a long time since I’d had even so much as a hangnail. But the emotional pain I endured since I’d left my violent life behind hurt worse than any fist, blade, or bullet.

In the back of my brain, a faint, echoed voice—the ghostly remains of the Old Sabina—whispered insults. Old Sabina never cried. She would never be scared of a fucking dream. And she sure as shit wouldn’t volunteer to put herself in the path of a madman who knew all her secret weaknesses. Not for her sister. Not for anyone.

Rhea bent over me, bringing with her a calming herbal scent. “Try to relax.”

A shaky laugh escaped me. “Easy for you to say.” My fists wouldn’t unclench. The spot where I’d cut my palm a few moments earlier to make another blood sacrifice to Asclepius had already healed, but the skin there still burned.

“Do it anyway,” she said.

To distract myself from my fear, I focused on identifying the ingredients of the fragrant oil she dabbed on my forehead, temples, and wrists. Six months earlier, I couldn’t tell the difference between a cannabis plant and a fern. But now I called up the name and purpose of each herb in the oil by scent alone. Sharp, woody rosemary for focus and purity. Helichrysum, with its musty-sweet straw and honey scent, for unblocking the subconscious and healing old emotional wounds. Clean, light cedar wood to calm the mind and ease tension.

Giguhl sat in a half-lotus position next to me, cradling my cold hand in his claw. His eyes were closed while he waited for the rituals to be completed. Ever since I told him he’d be coming with me to the Liminal, he’d grown quiet, introspective. I guess I’d expected him to bitch and moan. But even the Mischief demon understood the gravity of our mission and felt the need to mentally prepare.

I was relieved that Rhea had insisted the Queen, Alexis, and the rest of the mages, faeries, and vampires stay outside the chapel during the ritual. It was hard enough to focus with the voices in my head reminding me that I had no idea how to win this battle. It would only have been worse with an audience. Even so, I felt their presence just beyond the walls. The tension, the speculations, the pressure.

Rhea’s papery soft hands found mine. She looked into my eyes, her own dark with worry. “You need to call up your power. It will open a direct conduit to the Liminal.”

A cramp pinched my clenched jaw. I licked my lips. Calling up my Chthonic energies was always unsettling. The blessing and the curse of my Chthonic abilities was that they were easier to access when I was under some sort of extreme emotional stress. Rhea had worked with me to be able to call them at will, but never were they as strong as when I was angry or scared. Which meant they should be a snap to command at that moment.

I took a deep cleansing breath and closed my eyes. In my mind, I played a montage of Maisie’s greatest hits. The feral Maisie we’d liberated from that crypt. Remorseful Maisie, just after she realized she’d nearly killed Adam. Vengeful Maisie, Lavinia’s executioner. Fugue-state Maisie, the murderer.

My chest swelled and my head swam as I reexperienced those moments. I swam through the wave of emotions they brought up, diving down into black current.

Power rose up through the floor. Sizzled under my skin, rising up through my legs, my abdomen, my chest, my throat. My throat expanded and filled with the dark power.

As if from far away, I heard Rhea’s voice. “Steady.”

I opened my eyes. My vision was tinged red but super sharp. I noticed individual dust motes and the spider building a web in the rafters of the old chapel. I heard the heartbeat of a mouse hiding in the walls.

Hot wind rose, whipping my hair up around my face. Inside, I felt a door open in my solar plexus and the gentle tug of the in-between.

Maisie moaned in her sleep. Beneath her pale lids, her eyes jerked back and forth. Her breathing became more rapid.

“Don’t leave her body.” The voice that emerged from my lips was both mine and not mine. Deeper, darker, like a secret language.

Rhea put a hand over her heart. “I will watch over her corporeal form. You see to her spirit.”

Confident everyone would be safe here in the mortal realm, I surrendered to the pull of the Liminal. “Giguhl, let’s do this.”

This time, the shock of arriving in the Liminal wasn’t as sharp. I’d already seen the lunar landscape, the creepy crossroads with its ominous red flag, the horizons shimmering like a mirage. The light still hurt my eyes and the sharp air slashed my lungs. But something was different.

Me.

When I’d come before, I hadn’t tapped into my Chthonic power. I was just me, Sabina, visiting a foreign place. But when I called up my power, I was more. The power of the Chthonic goddesses filled me: Melinoe and Persephone, Themis and Gaia, Hekate and Lilith. Their dark energies allowed me to see details I couldn’t before.

A low-slung red moon loomed on the horizon. Black crows crouched in a skeletal tree. And long before the howl called to me, I felt the beast’s presence. The beat of its heart called to me through the thin air. Its hatred burned my skin. Its green eyes flashed a warning. It paused, just beyond the horizon, knowing I was already tracking its progress. My awareness of it confused the beast. Frightened it.

Good.

I didn’t have time to pursue shadow monsters. I had to find Maisie and free her from the prison of Cain’s influence. I still wasn’t sure how I was supposed to manage that trick. But first I had to find her.

And Giguhl.

“G?” I yelled. My voice echoed back at me like a taunt. Where the hell had that demon gone?

I turned slowly on the crossroads, looking for some sign of my wayward minion. But just then, a faraway shout reached my ears. Squinting in the odd light, I looked up. A gray speck rushed toward the ground from high above. The shouts grew louder the larger the speck grew.

I jumped out of the way at the last moment. Giguhl, in cat form, slammed to the earth like a tiny, hairless meteor. His body lay still in a deep crater in the center of the crossroads. Scrambling down the side of the hole, I rushed toward him.

“Giguhl!” I shouted, lifting his small, limp body.

The cat shook himself. “Thank the gods for nine lives,” he groaned.

I frowned, checking him over for injuries. But other than his unfocused pupils, he seemed fine. “I’m glad you’re all right, but I didn’t tell you to change forms,” I said. “Change back to the big-ass, scary demon, please.” The last thing I needed was to face down Cain with a shivering feline.

“Red, this is the Liminal,” the cat said, pulling himself out of my arms. He licked his paws and smoothed them over his head. “Normal rules don’t apply.”

Of course they didn’t. Because that would make things easier. “Can you just decide to change into your demon form?”

“You don’t get it.” The cat shook his head. “I didn’t choose this form. The Liminal chose it for me.”

I sighed and shook my head. “Are you saying the Liminal has a consciousness and can impose its own will?”

“Trust me, Red. It’s best not to question these things.” He shrugged his naked shoulder. “Let’s just go find Maisie, okay?”

I looked around the crossroads for some clue of where to begin our search for Cain and Maisie. But when a neon sign that said
PSYCHOTIC MURDERER THIS WAY
didn’t appear, I knew it was time to try something else.