Giguhl raised a black, scraggly brow. “You got a better plan?”
“Yes. Don’t go. He won’t kill Persephone. She’s the only ace he’s got up his sleeve right now.”
“The minute he thinks I don’t care enough to save her, he’ll kill her,” I said. “Then he’ll go after someone I really do care about.”
“Let him try,” Adam said, his jaw hard.
“Tough talk, Adherent,” Erron taunted. “But if you recall, Orpheus and Tanith weren’t exactly weaklings and he managed to kill them like that.” He snapped his fingers and a flame sputtered up from the tips.
“In the past, Cain’s always had the advantage, but this time we’re the ones with surprise on our side. All we have to do is trap him.”
“Oh, well, in that case.” Erron’s tone dripped with sarcasm. “We all saw how successfully that worked for Tristan. Or has everyone forgotten that’s exactly how he managed to control and kill Maisie?”
My jaw hardened as I glared at him. “No, Erron. We haven’t fucking forgotten.”
Adam put a hand on my arm before the conversation could get out of hand.
“I’m sorry,” the Recreant said. “But this is suicide mission. Gods, you guys, I almost died last night. I’m not willing to give Cain the chance to finish the job.”
I threw up my hands. “What do you want us to do, then? Nothing?”
“Yes,” Erron said, without a trace of irony. “Actually, scratch that. Listen to the advice your father gave you—run. Get as far away from Rome as you can. Warn everyone back in the States to watch their asses and then find a nice deserted island to hide out on for a few decades.”
“That again?” I snorted. “You’re insane.”
“No, what’s insane is thinking that you’ll be able to defeat Cain. This whole ragtag team thing you got going here is charming and all, but this shit is as serious as it gets. Cain hasn’t survived this long because he’s dumb. You won’t be able to trick him into letting his guard down. He’ll keep coming for you until he gets what he wants.”
“Which means your plan to run will only delay the inevitable,” Adam said.
Erron raised an eyebrow. “Extra time will give you a chance to weigh your options and form a real plan. Not this half-assed quest that was doomed from the start. Besides, if being a coward means I get to live a few extra years, I’ll always chose that option. You should, too.”
“Bullshit!” I yelled. “That might be how you live your life, Recreant, but it sure as hell isn’t how I live mine. Cain killed my sister. She died in my fucking arms, Erron. I couldn’t live with myself if I ran away just to save my ass. At least this way I’ll die on my own terms. Maisie never had that choice. Neither did your band when Cain killed them.”
He flinched when I mentioned his own losses. “Right, we have a choice. What does it do for their memories to commit suicide?”
Adam raised his chin. “What does it do for their memories for us to run and hide when we have the ability to stand up and fight?”
Silence followed Adam’s question. We didn’t have time to beg him to stay and help the cause. The situation was dire enough without coercing allies. Everyone involved in this mission needed 100 percent commitment if we were going to win.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Adherent,” Erron said finally. “Maybe my decision isn’t the brave one. But I’d rather be alive and a coward than a noble corpse.”
Adam huffed out a breath. “Well, that’s the difference between you and me, Recreant. You think you’re free because you care about no one. But to me that’s its own kind of prison. You want to go? Go. We appreciate your help and wish you the best, but we don’t have time for long good-byes.”
Erron held Adam’s gaze. A muscle worked in his jaw, like he was considering whether to take the bait. But in the end, Erron stayed true to his convictions. “For what it’s worth, I really hope you succeed. But if you don’t, it’s been an honor knowing all of you.”
“Wait, you’re just going to leave?” Alexis asked. “Like now?”
He nodded. “No sense drawing it out.” He turned to Giguhl and held out his hand. “It’s been nice knowing you.”
Giguhl shook back but scowled the entire time.
Erron didn’t offer his hand to Adam or me. Smart of him.
He turned to Alexis instead. “I’d be happy to transport you back to Los Angeles, if you want to cut out.”
Alexis crossed her arms and shot the mage a superior look. “I’m with Sabina. Surrender isn’t an option.”
I shot her a grateful smile. Alexis might be prickly but she was no coward.
“I wish you luck, then,” Erron said. “You’re sure as hell going to need it.”With that, Erron gathered his powers and disappeared.
I blew out a breath and looked at Adam. “Well, that sucked.”
“Forget him,” Alexis said. “We’ll be fine without him.”
I nodded absently. It’s not that I didn’t understand Erron’s point of view. He’d tangled with Cain before. More than anyone, he knew what we were up against. And it’s not like he hadn’t made his misgivings known from the beginning. I’d asked him to introduce us to his contact so we could find Abel. He’d fulfilled that promise when he took us to Dicky’s.
I supposed I should have been grateful he’d stuck around as long as he had. And on some level, I understood how getting injured the night before would spook a being who didn’t have the ability to heal himself. Instead, I felt disappointed and a little panicked. Now we’d be down one powerful mage, and we needed all the firepower we could get. But I didn’t want Erron to hang around if he wasn’t committed.
“Good riddance,” Adam said.
I was surprised by his attitude, but I probably shouldn’t have been. Adam was loyal to the Hekate Council, and Erron flaunted his rebellious Recreant status at every opportunity. We should have seen Erron’s choice coming from the night we asked him for help.
“All right,” Alexis said, “what’s our play?”
“Erron’s decision to leave changes nothing. We’ll leave Giguhl here. That way I can summon him to me if we’re right and this is a trap.”
“Works for me,” Giguhl said, and shrugged.
Adam nodded. “I’m going to call Rhea before we head out and let her know if she doesn’t hear from us in two hours to circle the wagons.”
“You think Cain will go after her anyway?”
“At this point, it’s safest to assume no one is safe.”
“Good point. Okay, let’s do this.” I rose to go grab the bag of weapons and amulets I’d packed the night before. In the other room, I heard chairs scrape and voices discuss logistics.
I checked my gun and stuck it into my rear waistband. The weight felt comforting, like slipping on a perfectly-broken-in pair of jeans.
I smelled Adam’s sandalwood scent before he grabbed me. Before I knew what was happening, his lips found mine. The intensity of his kiss surprised me. But I surrendered to it, savoring the feel and taste of him. When he finally pulled back, I blinked a few times. “Wow, what was that for?”
He touched his forehead to mine and smiled. “For luck.”
I held his gaze for a few moments. We both knew that kiss wasn’t about luck. It was a just-in-case kiss. The kind you share with someone you love when you’re not sure if it’s the last one. I cupped his cheek with my palm and whispered, “For luck.”
It just sounded so much better than good-bye.
Chapter 15
Situated just east of the Tiber River, the Piazza del Popolo was a large oval, and the obelisk Persephone had mentioned stood in the center like a giant phallus. Hundreds of gyrating bodies danced around the monument like pagan worshippers. And, like something out of a Fellini hallucination, every damned one of them wore some sort of creepy mask.
Stag horns and curling tongues, long beaks, and evil eyes. Wine flowed, limbs gyrated, pelvises ground together. Rome’s mortals, it seemed, were making the most of their last two weeks before the period of masochistic denial they called Lent.
The four of us stood on the perimeter of the plaza, watching the Technicolor swirl.
“Giguhl’s going to be pissed he missed this,” Adam observed.
“Oh gods,” Alexis said. “Please tell me we don’t have to wear those ridiculous things, too.”
I shrugged. “When in Rome, right?” Don’t get me wrong—I wasn’t a big fan of dress-up, either. But the anonymity would come in handy if this all ended in gunplay or magical fireworks.
Adam flagged down a passing guy carrying a tall staff with several masks attached. He grabbed three and tossed the guy some euros. Unlike the animal-themed ones that caught my eye among the crowd, these were simpler white masks that left our mouths exposed. A few sequins and wilted feathers added splashes of color. We all dutifully donned our disguises and set off into the crowd.
“Okay,” I said, “it’s a quarter till nine. Let’s break off and meet at the obelisk on the hour.” When we’d formed this plan earlier, we’d decided that Alexis would go with me. If an attack happened, Adam could flash himself out, but Alexis didn’t have magic in her arsenal and I did. I couldn’t flash us to safety since my Chthonic magic always took me to the Liminal when I tried initiating interspatial travel, but I could immolate an attacker at twenty paces.
Adam took off to the left. The mancy shot me a weighted parting glance and allowed the crowd to swallow him.
“Cain will know I’d want to be here early,” I said. “Stay alert.”
Alexis shot me a wry smile. The effect was somewhat sinister combined with the mask. “Yes, ma’am.”
The reminder was unnecessary and I knew it. Before Alexis had become Tanith’s personal guard, she’d been an assassin just like me. She knew the drill.