Damn you, brother.
Kynan was silent as a cat as he crept up to the box and knelt next to it. Pestilence had left it open, the heavy lid askew. Kynan’s assessing gaze traveled over the Aegis symbol on the lid, and then carefully, he picked up one of the coins inside, using his thumb to wipe off the dust.
“What is all that stuff?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Some of these pieces could be enchanted, used in certain rituals… I’m not sure. We’ll need to study them.” He glanced over at her. “You’re old… have you seen any of these before?”
Old? “I prefer to think of myself as worldly, and no. I’ve never seen them before.” The lie slammed more pleasure into her body. Funny how the fib could give her physical gratification, but mental anguish. Some small part of her actually hoped Kynan didn’t fall for this even as a tingly high fired along every nerve ending. “Do you guys find a lot of these forgotten Aegis chambers?”
Whatever Pestilence’s plan was, it could hinge on the believability of her happening upon a lost Aegis treasure trove.
“Every once in a while,” he said. “Records have been lost, so some of these places have been long forgotten. And in other cases, someone was given a task in haste, an object that needed to be hidden, and then, before the Guardian could reveal the location, they died. So yeah, there are a number of chambers we know exist but can’t locate, and hiding places we never knew about that we stumble across. And with the Apocalypse coming at us, discoveries are popping up in record numbers.”
“Because things once hidden want to be found when doomsday is nigh,” she murmured, quoting an ancient Aegis prophet she’d met back in the days before Christianity.
“Exactly.” KE when doom Kynan traced his finger over one of the necklaces at the bottom of the vault. “As the end of days nears, secrets are revealed.”
Secrets revealed. Limos did not like the sound of that. She closed her eyes, trying to black out her past, her guilt, and not doing a very good job. She’d deceived so many, from the very day she’d walked out of Sheoul to now. And as much as she wanted to warn Kynan about the objects she’d led him to, she couldn’t. Too much was at stake. The artifacts were in The Aegis’s hands now, and what they did with them wasn’t her concern.
A scratching sound had her opening her eyes to see Kynan brushing sand away from the base of the stone box.
“What are you doing?”
He licked his lips, his expression one of intense concentration. “Sometimes these boxes have hidden compartments.”
She squatted down. “Can I help?”
“I wouldn’t. They’re usually warded so that if anyone but a Guardian tries to open them, either the contents are destroyed, or the person trying to get in gets a nasty surprise.”
He pressed on a carved symbol with his forefinger. There was a grinding noise, followed by a puff of sand that made them both cough. Kynan waved his hand to clear the brown cloud, and as the particles fell away, a drawer was revealed. Inside were three fragile-looking scrolls.
“Cool,” she breathed.
She wondered if Pestilence had known about the drawer. Maybe this find would make up for whatever evil Pestilence was up to with the artifacts.
Kynan picked one up. “Seals are intact.” His smile, as he looked up at her, was one that could make a woman drunk with want. “Thanks, Limos. Between the artifacts and the scrolls, this could prove to be one of our best finds in a long time.”
Guilt soured her mouth. “Yeah. No problem. You ready to go?”
Kynan unfurled to his full height, which was well over six feet. “Yep. Just one minute.”
He carefully filled his pockets with the treasures. “If you can take me to Berlin, I’d be grateful.”
“Specific location?”
“Nope.” His smile told her he didn’t want to give away the location of The Aegis’s headquarters, which she got.
She threw open a gate. “Let’s go.”
“Wait.” He grabbed her arm, and she resisted the urge to throw him across the chamber for touching her. Not that she could. Trying to injure Kynan was useless. “Are you making any progress in locating Arik?”
“No,” she said softly, “I haven’t. I’m on my way back to the hellmouth, though.”
Her cell beeped, and she checked it, expecting Than, but what she saw made her blood run both ho Kd rwidt and cold. “Oh… God.”
“What is it?”
The update flashing on her underworld app filled the chamber with an eerie glow. “The gambling network. It’s buzzing.” Pains stabbed her chest, and for a second she was pretty sure she was having a heart attack. “The odds of Arik dying tomorrow just tanked.”
“That’s good news.”
“No,” she whispered. “It’s not.” She looked up. “The rumor is that he escaped. Odds now are that he’ll be dead in an hour.”
“Hey, Pest.” The light tone Arik went for didn’t make it past his parched, raw throat.
“Did you really think you were going to escape?”
Arik swung around, hoping his wince at the painful twinge in his hip came across as a casual smile. “Nah. I broke out to get some exercise. How’d you find me, anyway?”
Pestilence, his big body encased in tarnished armor that oozed oily stuff at the joints, rubbed his chin as though deep in thought. As if the f**ker had more than one brain cell. “Spiny hellrats are my spies. But for what it’s worth, it was a noble attempt. Impressive, actually.”
“I live for your admiration.”
“I’m sure.”
Arik’s stomach rumbled, the sound magnified by the tunnel’s acoustics, which was a little embarrassing. “What is it you want from me? ’Cuz I gotta tell ya, there’s very little you can do that hasn’t been done.”
The Horseman smiled, exposing some serious fangage. “We’re going to get close, you and I. Very, very close.”
Arik swallowed. Tried to, anyway. His throat was too dry. But he definitely didn’t like the sound of Pestilence’s close thing. “Look, I’m sure you make all the lady demons cream their panties, but I’m just not that into you.”
“You’re into Horsemen, though, aren’t you? You’re here because you couldn’t keep your hands off my sister.” Pestilence shrugged. “I’m not judging. She’s got that unattainable bad girl quality going on. Took balls for you to kiss her, what with you being a pathetic human and all.”
Too exhausted to banter any more, Arik slumped against the wall of the cave. “Just do whatever you came to do. Take me back to the cell. Kill me. Whatever. I’m tired of the games.”
Pestilence was in Arik’s face in a heartbeat, his fingers wrapped around his throat. Arik didn’t even have a chance to fight back before he was lifted into the air and slammed into the stone with such force that his teeth rattled.
“I would love to kill you right now, but I have other plans.” Pestilence knocked Arik against the wall again, and the crack of breaking bones echoed like gunshots off the stone walls.
Pain set fire to every nerve ending. He dangled there, watching in horror as the f**ker struck, sinking his huge-ass fangs into his throat. Arik punched, scratched, struggled as hard as he could, but nothing he did seemed to faze Pestilence.
Gradually, blood loss sapped his strength, until his struggles amounted to little more than spastic twitches. He became lightheaded, woozy, and eventually all the pains and aches melted away, leaving him blissfully numb.
Pestilence lifted his head, and though Arik’s vision had gone dark, he felt the rasp of the dude’s tongue sliding over the punctures. Crazily, Arik’s only thought was how vampire-like the whole thing was.
Pestilence released him, and he dropped heavily to the ground, landing in a crumpled, motionless heap. Arik heard the clank of armor, and then something was against his mouth, and warm liquid was flowing over his tongue. At first, he was grateful for the wetness that relieved his parched tongue and throat, and he swallowed greedily.
Until he realized the wetness was blood.
Holy hell, he was drinking the Horseman’s blood—
His body jackknifed as pain shot through him, and suddenly he was flopping around like a dying animal on the side of the road, his limbs out of control, his head banging on the stone floor. Pestilence wrestled him flat on the ground with his huge, armored body, forcing Arik to keep drinking, even though he wanted to vomit.
White spots floated in front of his eyes, and darkness surrounded him, sucking him into a spinning vortex of oblivion.
And then he was alone, lying on the ground. The narrow tunnel didn’t look familiar, and the ceiling was so low that an average-sized man would have to duck to walk through it. Mixed with the stifling, searing heat was a cool breeze. Well, not cool, exactly. More like a slightly less blistering breeze.
And wait… what had happened? How had he gotten here? Why was he not in his cell?
Didn’t matter. He needed to find the source of the breeze. He tried to get to his feet, but they wouldn’t work. Nothing below the waist worked. He supposed he should be panicking, but mentally, he was as numb as his lower body.
The breeze beckoned him, and reaching deep for what little energy remained in his broken body, he dug his fingers into the black soil and dragged himself toward the fresh air. Heat blasted him, steam and smoke burned his eyes, and his fingernails tore. But little pinpricks of light appeared in the distance, giving him hope and the willpower to continue.
He pulled himself along, grunting with every inch of progress, until finally, dear God finally, he found himself at the precipice between hell and the earth.
And then he realized, as he stared into the gaping maw of a massive, bubbling volcano, that nothing had changed. He’d climbed out of hell, but this was no different. This was hell on earth.
The volcano’s hellmouth looked the same to Limos as it had when she’d searched it earlier. Blackened, with steam rising toward it, though most of it was deflected by the air coming out of Sheoul.