Chapter 20

 

My breath puffed out in foggy bursts as I walked around to the back of the motel. Flies buzzed around the overfull dumpster. Faintly, I could hear a man in a woman screaming at each other in one of the rooms. And I could still smell the cigarette smoke drifting all the way back here from the parking lot.

I ignored it all.

I dropped the pillowcase I was holding. It landed with a clatter. We had taken the pillow out to use the case as a makeshift bag. I stared down at it, but didn’t reach inside yet.

If I did this, I would never be able to go back. Not only when it came to Hades’s alliance with Persephone, which we would forfeit all chance of rebuilding if my plan worked, but also inside myself. In my five years working for Hades, I had crossed a lot of lines I had thought I would never be able to cross. This one was different.

I squatted down beside the pillowcase, and started pulling out small shards of wood, each about as tall as my hand from fingers to wrist. The motel could bill me for the nightstand we had destroyed, if they cared. I set the shards up in a series of tiny tripods, forming a circle around myself. In the end, I made about fifteen, with one piece of wood left. I stood in the center of the circle and held the last remaining splintered piece of nightstand in one hand. In the other, I held the lighter I had bought off the man in the parking lot.

I could still turn back. No one would blame me. Antarctica or not, Ishtar or not, the others might even be grateful. Everyone in that room wanted to win, but no one wanted to win this way. Not when we had worked so closely with Persephone’s people over the years. Not when they were the only reason Hades had kept his territory even after losing almost all his own Marked and Guardians.

And I wanted this less than any of them. I could still picture Ciara’s smile when I closed my eyes, still see her sliding into the seat across from me at Sacred Grounds four years ago.

But that Ciara was gone. Maybe it was time for me to make some changes, too.

I flicked the lighter, and lit the shard of wood in my hand.

The nightstand’s varnish sizzled as the flame touched it, but it stayed lit. I raised the flame above my head as I spoke. “Fire elementals of the plane of Haz-Oreia.” I didn’t have the first clue what that meant, but Ginevra had assured me it was a distinct, if small, plane of existence—and that I did not, under any circumstances, want to make the mistake of accidentally summoning any other fire elementals, who would be under no obligation to listen. “Fifty-seven years ago, you entered into a contract with the god Hades, which obligated you to aid him in all minor pursuits. In exchange, you were given free rein to spread your fires within the city provided no humans would be harmed, and were offered protection from the other gods. This agreement is in effect for the next forty-three years.” I took a breath. “As a Marked of Hades, bearing my god’s power within my soul, I invoke this agreement now.”

My fingers started feeling uncomfortably warm as the flame crept closer. I talked faster.

“Your contract obligates you to aid Hades in all minor pursuits, when requested. I have come to you for assistance in a major pursuit, one that lies outside the scope of the contract. If you agree to help me, then in exchange, you will be released from the contract immediately. You will be given free rein for eternity in all Hades’s current and future territories, to spread your fires where no humans will be harmed. He will continue to protect you against the other gods. In addition to protecting you from the other gods, he will defend your territory against all other fire elementals.” Ginevra had told me that last part would be a huge draw.

The fire licked at my fingertips. I gritted my teeth and held on. I watched the tripods in front of me, and I waited.

Nothing happened.

If I dropped the shard of wood, and stamped out the flame with my sneakers, it would be the equivalent of hanging up the call before anyone could answer. I could go back to the room, and forget I had ever thought of this.

The flame burned deeper. I bit my lip to keep from screaming, and held on.

The pain sank into my bones. It spread down my hand and through my entire skeleton, until I had to look down at my body to make sure I hadn’t burst into flames. I bit my lip harder, until I tasted blood.

And then something streamed out of me. I saw it before I felt it, a rush of sparks pouring from my abdomen. Relief followed a second later, as the heat and the burning subsided, leaving me feeling like I was standing under a cooling waterfall. The charred piece of wood fell from my fingers. I brought my hand down, and saw that my fingers were smooth and unblistered.

The sparks formed a circle over the tripods. One tripod flared to life in a burst of flame. Then another, and another, until they were all burning.

The elementals hadn’t actually come from inside my body. Rather, they had used my location as the bridge from their realm to this one—or that was how Ginevra had described it. The only reason I had felt like I was on fire was that they had formed their portal right where I was standing. Intellectually, I knew that. But that didn’t make it any less unsettling.

Especially once the elementals started taking form.

They consumed the kindling almost immediately. But the flames didn’t go out once the tripods were gone. Instead, each small fire stretched for the sky, and as they reached over my head, they shaped themselves into sinuous forms—part snake, part cat, with oversized blue-white eyes that glowed within the red and orange flames.

Even within a single element, every species of elemental looks different. I had seen humanoid fire elementals, ones that looked like dragons, ones that crawled like lizards but screeched like birds. But despite Hades’s contract with these particular elementals, I had never gotten an up-close look at one before. They might almost have been cute, if not for the claws and fangs and snapping flames.

Beyond the fifteen that had grown out of the tripods, I saw other flickers in the air, more pairs of eyes watching me. The others’ bodies weren’t as distinct as the ones who had accepted my offering, but I could still tell they were there. The glowing eyes stretched as far as I could see.

One of the elementals slithered up to me, throwing off sparks. It stopped close enough to me that I could feel the heat radiating from it, like I was sitting too close to a campfire. In a voice of crackling flames, it asked, “What would you have us do?”

This was my last chance to walk away. I could tell them it was a mistake. I could still turn back.

Instead, I answered the elemental’s question.

 

* * *

 

I would give the elementals this—they were thorough. I didn’t even have to fake the weakness in my pain-seared limbs as I collapsed in front of Ciara’s door. Even if this hadn’t been my intended destination, I wouldn’t have been able to make it another step.

I didn’t have an unburned patch of skin on me. Some of the burns were so deep I couldn’t feel them. I was grateful for those. The rest all felt like my skin had been peeled off slowly, layer by layer. The clothes Ginevra had forced onto my body, and the cold air outside, had been twin tortures. Now, inside the building, the cold was gone, but every inch of exposed skin rubbing against the carpet fibers of the hallway would have ripped a scream from my throat if I had still been capable of speech.

And that wasn’t even getting into the internal damage. Without my Marked healing, I would have been dead long before I could have made it here. I had used every bit of speed I possessed, and every lesson in pain the temple had taught me, to push myself here. Now I had run dry. It took a lot to do serious damage to one of the Marked, but after the exertion on top of the burn damage, I was pretty sure I was actually dying.

With the amount of pain I was in, I wasn’t entirely sure that would be a bad thing.

When I had made my bargain with the elementals, I hadn’t understood what I was asking for. All I wanted to do was lie here, close my eyes, and wait for the pain to stop. Instead, I forced myself to raise my arm and slam my blistered hand hard against Ciara’s door.

I didn’t even know whether she was home, let alone whether she would hear my pathetic attempt at a knock. But the door opened after only a few seconds. “Who—” Ciara started. Then she paused. I couldn’t focus my eyes, but a shadow over the light told me she had bent down over me. “Mal? Is that you?”

I summoned every last shred of willpower I possessed in order to speak. “Help,” I croaked. “Please.”

“What happened?” Ciara demanded. “Who did this? Was it one of our people?”

I didn’t have to pretend to be unable to answer. I wasn’t sure I could have said another word if my life had depended on it.

“Never mind. It doesn’t matter right now. I’m getting you to the hospital.” Ciara levered her arms under me and tried to lift me up.

I screamed without breath. I kicked, and clawed, and bucked against her. I couldn’t control my own body. I didn’t remember why I was here anymore; I could barely remember who she was. There was no room in my world for anything else but the single-pointed agony of her touch.

Ciara drew back. As she leaned in to take a closer look at me, she muttered a word I hadn’t thought she knew. “Forget the hospital,” she said. “I’m taking you to the temple.”

Quickly this time, like ripping off a bandage, she gathered me into her arms. I fought again—I couldn’t help it—but she held me tightly against her, heedless of the blood and other fluids I could feel seeping out from my skin and through her clothes. My vision whited out, and time seemed to skip forward, like I had lost a few seconds somewhere in there. Or a few minutes. The distinction didn’t feel like it mattered.

“I know you’re going to hate me for this when you wake up,” said Ciara. “I’m sorry. But better to be Persephone’s prisoner then dead. If you’re too injured for your healing to kick in, you’re probably too injured for the hospital to help. I promise, once we get to the temple, I’ll do my best to make sure they don’t…”

Torture me? Kill me? Give me a stern lecture? I didn’t know, because that was when I lost consciousness.

 

* * *

 

I woke up staring through the skylight of Persephone’s temple. I was lying on a stone platform that radiated soft heat through my muscles. A gentle sun shone down on me with the warmth of summer, even though I knew perfectly well that it was a million degrees below zero outside. The breeze that blew across my skin was so gentle it didn’t even make me want to scream, and I tasted honeysuckle on the air.

The face staring down into mine was not nearly so pleasant.

“She’s awake,” Harmony snapped. “I thought she wasn’t supposed to wake up yet.”

To my other side, the young Guardian who had greeted us at Persephone’s door on New Year’s Day quivered. “I might have made a miscalculation. Once I got her to a certain point, her own healing helped me along. I didn’t expect that to happen as fast as it did.”

“Are her restraints secure?” asked Harmony.

“She isn’t fully healed yet,” the Guardian answered. “She won’t be able to go anywhere. I saved her legs for last, like you said.”

“Are. They. Secure?” Harmony bit out the words.

The Guardian nodded frantically. “Check for yourself, if you like.”

During this exchange, I gave my body a mental once-over. It quickly showed me that the lack of pain from the air wasn’t due to the breeze’s gentleness, but the fact that my skin was almost entirely healed, along with the deeper damage underneath. I could still feel bright flashes of pain here and there, exploding like tiny bombs under my skin, but nothing constant, and nowhere near the all-consuming agony of before.

Next, I tested the restraints they had mentioned. I tried to move my arms, then my legs. I winced as scratchy rope dug into a few remaining surface burns.

Harmony followed my movements. She tightened the ropes, until pins and needles prickled down my fingers and my toes.

“You’re in Persephone’s temple.” I couldn’t see Ciara, but I could hear her. “They’re healing you. Don’t try to fight.” She stepped out from behind Harmony, and looked at me with grief in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Mal. I had to do it. It was the only way to save your life.”

Looking at her sent a full-body stab of pain through me that had nothing to do with my injuries. I turned away.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. She turned to the Guardian. “Is she all right?”

“She’ll be fine. I’m dealing with the last of the damage to her legs now.” She murmured to Persephone in a lilting voice, and a hum of pain I hadn’t realized I was still feeling went abruptly silent. “I also dealt with the shock. All she needs is a little rest, and she’ll be back on her feet.”

“She’s not going to be back on her feet for a long time,” Harmony snapped.

Ciara frowned. “You promised to treat her fairly.”

“I did.” Harmony looked down at me with the dead eyes of a shark. “Luckily, the gods have a flexible definition of fair.”

“Don’t take that tone with me.” In Ciara’s voice, I heard an echo of the woman who had sat across from us in Zeus’s temple. “You’re not talking to some timid new Marked.”

“No,” said Harmony, “I’m talking to the Marked who will be on permanent loan to Sobek once this situation is resolved. So why don’t you go pack, and let us handle—” Her voice broke off. “What on earth?” she murmured.

A Marked I didn’t recognize rushed up to Harmony, out of breath. Several more followed on his heels. “We got your message,” he panted. “What happened?”

“What are you doing here?” Harmony demanded. “You’re supposed to be guarding Hades’s temple.”

His creased in confusion. “We got a message saying the temple was under attack.” He took a step back at the look on Harmony’s face. “We double-checked it, I swear. It used all the right protocols.”

“Hades’s senior Marked knows those protocols.” Alarm flared in Harmony’s shark eyes. Slowly, she looked down at me.

So did Ciara. She looked at me like she had never seen me before as she whispered, “What did you do?”

My own whisper wasn’t for her. “Now,” I said softly.

For the space of a few seconds, I was on fire all over again. Then sparks erupted from my body in a red-orange blur. Everyone around me took a step back, even though they didn’t know what they were looking at. Not yet.

The elementals would never have been able to break through the temple wards. But they didn’t need to. Not when they could use my location as a doorway—and they had been watching me through that doorway since the summoning, waiting for me to give the signal.

And Ciara had brought me into the temple.

The sparks grew into flames as they expanded out from me in a circle. The flames turned into the slithering felines I had seen behind the motel. They stretched higher and higher, taller than they had grown behind the motel, until their heads brushed the skylight.

In a single crackling voice, they howled in delight.

And the temple began to burn.