Chapter Two

DRUMMING HER NAILS against her countertops, Briar stared at her phone. Four hours until they tried to summon Ortus. She’d barely been able to sleep last night but that was nothing new. She shouldn’t have told anyone her plan, she should have just tried, except Lillia was right—she was the better option.

But they called him the God of Death. And though those names had not been literal, as she had recently learned, there was still a reason for it. He lurked near deathbeds. He smelled of sweet decay.

She needed to think of something else and stop dwelling on everything that could go wrong. She picked up her phone. She didn’t know the number she needed but it was an easy search online. Really, it was too easy, there should be some kind of security. But of course she wouldn’t be the one to answer, a secretary would.

After Eliana had returned, she’d tried to call Evaria several times, unable to get the image of her lying on the ground out of her head. She didn’t know exactly what Evaria remembered but it wasn’t the bullshit story of being mugged she’d fed to the press.

All those interviews had done some good though. Evaria had won the open mayor position in Wesvick. It had been a quick, emergency election, reminiscent of the time after Soren’s father, Ansel, had stepped down, but this was happier. Nearly the whole city supported Evaria, who had always supported the arts and any renovation project.

Jenia Alvier would be in charge of Endlyia. Evaria Jakobson would be mayor. Wesvik’s citizens had partied in the street after her landslide election.

She’d kept the name after her speedy divorce. One day she was married, the next she wasn’t. The next she was running for mayor. She had still been bruised in her press conferences.

But Jakobson was how everyone knew her. Briar wondered if their affair played any part in that. Maybe it wasn’t only Briar. Perhaps there had been others.

“Hello. Mayor Jakobson’s office. How may I direct your call?” The voice on the other end was cheery and distracted. Briar could hear the secretary typing something on her computer.

“Good afternoon. This is Briar Constance. I was hoping I could speak with the mayor. It’s a bit urgent.”

“Oh…” The cheery façade disappeared, and the sound of the typing stopped. “Ms. Constance…I’m afraid—”

“Listen, I need you to tell Evaria it’s me and it’s an emergency…please.”

“Hold on.” The phone line went silent.

Briar pressed her head against the cold metal of her fridge. She just needed to talk to her, to see what she knew, to know she was okay. She needed Evaria to stop plaguing her dreams, her waking thoughts, the constant interruption of her day when she remembered the way she had laid on the ground. Bleeding. And Briar, chanting, aiding her attacker.

“Briar?” Evaria’s voice was curious and Briar’s shoulders sagged.

“Evie, I’m sorry to call your office but you wouldn’t answer your phone.” She was alive. Briar knew it of course, she’d seen her on the news, but hearing Evaria say her name had lifted some of the weight she had been carrying.

“I saw your calls.” There was the ice Briar had been expecting. “I don’t want to talk about—I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m the mayor.” It was flippant, avoiding the question and also a reminder. Evaria had moved quickly after the attack, grabbing all the power she had access to. The conversation was rapidly taking a downward spiral. It wasn’t something they should talk about over the phone.

The handle of the fridge bit into Briar’s back and she closed her eyes. “Let me get you lunch, a coffee, something. Please, Evaria. Please.” She couldn’t control what happened tonight with Lillia, but maybe she could do right by Evaria this time. At the very least she owed her the truth, and the warning that came with it.

“I’ve seen you with the Savros boy and some girl. What is this even about?”

Briar rolled her eyes. Of course Evaria was keeping up with her. “What did you tell me once? This is not a social call? We need to talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you, Briar.”

Putting on her sweetest voice, she cradled the phone between her shoulder and ear, and rubbed her temples. “Evie, you have to talk about what happened. You can’t carry that around. I know what…” She sighed. “Let me buy you a coffee.”

“Goodbye, Briar.” The line went dead.

Well, as far as interactions with Evaria went that hadn’t been the worst. But now her mind was back on Lillia.

*

TWO KNOCKS. SHE hadn’t even made it to the third before the door opened and Lillia’s sister, Estoria, was frowning at her, a sticky looking toddler at her ankles. “This was your idea, hmmm?”

“What? No!” Briar tried to glance over Estoria’s shoulder. “I was going to do it myself. And besides”—she pushed her way into the house, aiming for the side without the child—“your sister is a grown woman and she knows how important this is.”

Lillia came around a corner and Briar’s breath caught in her chest. Her hair was bushy and frizzed, her jeans were stained with dirt at the knees, and she was smiling. A bouquet of hand cut flowers was cradled in her arms. “You’re early.”

“I was hoping to get you alone for a bit, though it seems today my plans have been thwarted.” She stuck her tongue out at the toddler, sending the child into a fit of giggles.

“Not quite.” Lillia gave her sister a pointed look. “She was leaving. Kids need dinner.”

“Lillia…”

“Stop.” Lillia’s tone left no room for argument and Estoria glared but didn’t say anything as she left.

Briar waited until she heard the door shut to kick her shoes off and head for the kitchen. Was drinking advised before summoning a God? She doubted it but she felt like her heart was about to pound out of her chest. Getting a little tipsy had to be better than standing around sober and waiting for the girl she liked to do something incredibly dangerous.

“Wait,” Lillia said, pushing the fridge closed with her hip before Briar had even fully opened it. She put down the flowers and stood on her toes, reaching above them both. Her body pressed against Briar, heating her and filling the air with her scent. She smirked, raising an eyebrow, and pulled a bottle of rum from the top cabinet.

Briar grabbed her around her waist before she slipped away and kissed her. Lillia grasped Briar by the back of the head with her free hand, deepening the kiss, her tongue sweeping through Briar’s mouth. The kiss was rushed, full of urgency. She pushed her hips into Briar, moaning softly, but fear emanated from her, sparks of dark power that flashed in Briar’s peripheral vision until she pulled away.

She didn’t tell her it was going to be all right or offer any platitudes. She pulled two shot glasses across the counter and poured one for each of them. “You can back out. I can be the one to do it.”

“No.” Lillia downed her shot and grimaced but poured another. “Just don’t let me die. I’m not ready.”

“I swear.” Briar wanted to back her up until she was on the counter. She could see it, her pants on the kitchen tile under Briar’s knees. She wanted to make her forget there was anything else but the two of them, tangled together. But there wasn’t time. She’d spent all day worried, too nervous about how she’d react once she got here. Now she was here, and she wanted to do anything that would keep her mind from wandering to what they were about to do. She longed to take Lillia and leave; drive and drive until it was just open land, not a skyscraper in sight.

The rum was cheap and burned going down, but it did the trick. She poured two more and stepped closer, closing the space between them until Lillia’s scent once again filled her nose. She pressed her lips to the corner of Lillia’s mouth. “Kick everyone out as soon as it’s done. It doesn’t matter what we learn.”

Lillia smiled, revealing the slightest hint of a dimple. “Okay. I promise.”

Briar let her hands drop to Lillia’s waist, her thumb brushing the skin under her shirt until she reached the metal button of her pants. They were still gritty with dirt from the garden. Lillia’s stomach tightened under her touch and when she looked up, her brown eyes were ablaze. “Hello.”

“Hi.” Lillia’s voice was breathy.

Suddenly, she was on the counter, her feet brushing against Briar’s knees. One of the shot glasses tumbled to the side, the dregs of rum pooling around it. Lillia pulled her closer, grasping at Briar’s shirt until it was over her head. Her legs wrapped around Briar’s waist.

“We don’t have time.”

Briar didn’t care, she had to think of something else. She grasped Lillia by the chin, exposing the long column of her neck, and she bit down on the soft skin above her collarbone. Every inch of Briar’s body was on fire, her remaining clothes scratching against her sensitive skin. She needed her—now. The urgent ache built between her thighs. She made quick work pulling off her pants and hooked her fingers on the lacy red fabric underneath.

A familiar voice rang out through the house. “We thought you might—in the kitchen?” Fauna frowned. “Under the eyes of the Gods and your friends?”

Briar snatched her shirt from the floor and held it to her chest. “Well, we’re never alone. I need a spell to keep you away. A curse or something. By the power of the Gods—”

“Stop it! You know not to play with magic.” Lillia jumped from the counter and grabbed her pants. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were wide but Briar could have sworn there was amusement there. “We were…”

“Boning in the kitchen.” Soren finished for them, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

He must have come with Fauna. Had they walked together? Fauna’s apartment wasn’t far from his house. Briar hadn’t ever taken a moment to wonder at the bonds between the two of them. But they had shown up together to her house before and there hadn’t been any new fiancés lately. Briar slipped her shirt over her head, pushing the thoughts out of it.

Just as before, her cousin dumped the contents of a paper bag on the kitchen table, but it wasn’t food inside. Briar grimaced at the assortment of crystals and pungent herbs. Maybe it was too soon. Too dangerous. Too presumptuous to demand the Gods give them more answers after Nilaja had just walked through the veil for her.

But the clock was running and who knew what madness Eliana had up her sleeve, whose mind she might infect next?

“I got my dad to return an email. He’s been overseas, said he needed time to think. Fauna and I are going to meet with him soon.” Soren picked up a crystal and held it up to the light.

“You and Fauna?” The words slipped from Briar’s lips, curiosity winning out. Had she been paying so little attention lately?

“Yes?” Fauna narrowed her eyes.

“Oh, well, let me know how it goes.” Briar tried to cover. She didn’t know what she was feeling, the strange emotion that had awakened at the thought of them together, without her. Whatever it was, it wasn’t fair. They were certainly allowed friendship and Soren was allowed to move on from chasing her. He’d made his intentions clear enough and she’d barely acknowledged them. But the way he had looked the night they had run away still came to her mind from time to time.

She shook her head to clear it. After all, she’d just had Lillia shirtless on the counter. She was a hypocrite and it wasn’t the time. It was never the time anymore and sometimes she marveled at what a terrible person she must be to even worry about sex while an actual global crisis was happening. But she wasn’t sure she’d ever been anything close to a good person.

Fauna smiled sweetly, a dangerous sign. She opened her mouth to speak, one hand on her hip, but Soren cleared his throat, cutting her off.

“I doubt my father would be open if you were there. You did attack him in my house that one time and then you were there when he was almost murdered by a Goddess. Fauna’s sweet.” Briar scoffed but Soren continued as though he hadn’t heard. “I didn’t want to go alone and I knew she’d be able to charm him.”

“Can we discuss this later? If we don’t do something soon I’m going to lose my nerve.” Lillia’s face had returned to its normal color, but her hands were shaking.

“You don’t have to do this.” All the venom had left Fauna’s voice and her concern was genuine. “We can wait. We’ll figure something else out.”

Lillia glanced toward Briar but Briar didn’t know what to say or how to comfort her. “No, I haven’t forgotten what Eliana is capable of.”

None of them had. Briar often woke sweaty, her heart racing, remembering what she had done, the way she’d chanted and helped the Goddess while Jenia lay dead and Evaria and Ansel were bleeding out. She would never forget the way Eliana had possessed her mind without her even realizing. And she often thought of Bastianna who had acted of her own free will, who hadn’t needed to be coerced into terrible deeds and who Briar had once interviewed and happily hired. She was always at Jenia’s side now. Briar hated her.

“He’s going to show up,” Soren said, slipping the crystal into his pocket and pouring himself a large drink. “He’s probably going to be mad and call us presumptuous but he’s going to come.”

“Do you think he’s listening to us now?” Fauna gazed around the room like she might be able to spot Ortus peering out of one of the kitchen cabinets. “Just growing angrier and angrier.”

“He ought to pop out now, then, save us the trouble.” Briar crossed her arms to keep from balling her fists.

“Okay.” Lillia snapped her fingers. “Come on. Living room.” She shot Soren a look. He hadn’t wanted to do it at his house.

Briar followed her, remembering the night Lillia had first taught her spells. The magic that had flowed through her, spilling out. The way, if she had been honest with herself, she had known then she’d never get her fill of Lillia. She grabbed the runner off the coffee table and folded it, a now-familiar nag coming back to her.

Where was she headed? Where did this all end?

She glanced at Lillia and found her staring at her, head cocked to one side. “I’m scared,” she mouthed.

Briar rounded the coffee table while Fauna set up the room. She lowered her mouth to Lillia’s ear. “I’m here. I would never let anything happen to you.” She steadied herself with a hand on Lillia’s thigh. “I love you.”

The words tightened her chest and she hated herself for saying them, unsure if she meant them. Unsure of everything, except that this would work. They would summon Ortus and he would know how to help them. There had to be a solution that didn’t involve sacrificing someone she loved. It would work because she could not stand the alternative.

Lillia blinked. Once. Twice. She nodded. “I’m ready.” Then she stood.

Oh.

Briar tried not to dwell on her lack of response, and for the moment it wasn’t hard as Lillia kneeled in front of a hammered bronze bowl, her eyes wide. Soren and Fauna flanked Briar on the other side of the table. The fear that filled the room was thick and oily on her tongue. Was it too soon for such a last-ditch effort? Should she try harder? Her thoughts spiraled.

What was she doing? Letting Lillia slit her wrist in the living room. This was stupid. Gods, she was so stupid. Her heart pounded in her chest and her lungs no longer seemed to hold air. This was too dangerous.

Fauna started to chant. The Book of Bindings was no longer necessary. They knew the words of the spell by heart. So many terrible nights, so many scars on their forearms from unanswered summons and no Godly magic to heal their wounds. Just a bowl of blood and the air heavy with disappointment.

Briar took up the chant and the temperature in the room lowered until she was shaking. She didn’t need to open her eyes to know when Lillia had brought knife to skin. Her gasp and the coppery tang of blood filled the room.

She continued to chant, Soren and Fauna stiffening at her side. It was taking too long. The words spilled from her lips without thought until she opened her eyes. Lillia’s brown skin was pale, her eyes wide and afraid. Blood poured from both her wrists.

Anger and fear rose in Briar in equal measure until they consumed her. How dare Ortus not answer their call? He had tasked Lillia’s family with protecting the secrets of the Gods for centuries and now, when one of his acolytes called for him, he wouldn’t answer? He couldn’t deign to show himself, heal her?

Lillia continued to bleed out silently, but her mouth hung open as she panted. Her eyes were wide with fear and tears glistened in her lashes. Briar could not watch her die, not like this. Not tonight.

Magic sparked in her palms, gold and white. She gritted her teeth as the blood continued to pour from Lillia. She swayed where she sat, and the bowl continued to fill.

Briar stood, thinking of Nilaja, the way her power had filled every inch of her until she was nearly bursting with it. She was ready to burst now. She would find the Gods’ domain and rip them from it if they let Lillia bleed out now, after everything. “Ortus!” she bellowed and the chanting on either side of her stopped. “She won’t be the sacrifice! Ortus!”

Thunder boomed outside the window. Wind ripped through the branches of the trees lining the yard, howling the Gods’ displeasure.

“I’m not scared of you. If anything happens to her, you’ll be the one afraid. If there are ways to banish Gods from this world there’s ways to trap them here and I’ll make it my mission. I swear it.” She felt her power continue to grow, shredding her veins. Too far. Blood dripped from her nose. “Ortus!”

The temperature in the room dropped to freezing, the lights blinked out until only the flickering candlelight remained. There was a boom of thunder and he stood in front of them. Fauna whimpered as she dashed for Lillia.

“Briar Constance, you think too highly of yourself.” The sound of his voice was the harbinger of death.