After her dissatisfying discussion with Wynn, Stephanie slept worse than usual. She dreamt of the night with her mate and awoke aching and fatigued. Her guardians were already awake and moving around the chamber. She wanted to stay in bed for the day but forced herself up.
First on her agenda this morning wasn’t tracking down her stubborn father to try to talk more sense into him or, failing that, to cram as much of his knowledge into her head as possible.
She dressed and rose, leaving her chamber. Trailed by Trayern, she went to the dungeon and stood in front of the door leading to Kris’ cell. Of all her brothers, he was the most like Wynn: ruthless and manipulative. If anyone could think of a way to outsmart Wynn, it was Kris.
The jailer opened the door, and she stepped into it.
“Can you wait out here?” she asked Trayern.
He looked around the cell and at Kris, who sat at his table with a tray of hot tea. “Door stays open,” the demon said.
Stephanie nodded and entered. She needed some private time with Kris and didn’t trust Trayern not to report whatever he learned to Darkyn.
Kris waited for her to enter, a light in his gaze that left her uncomfortable from the start.
“You need something,” he said.
“I hate how you do that,” she said and sat across from him at the small table. “Yeah. I do.”
“I’m happy to negotiate.”
“Is there no honor among family?”
“None,” he said with a half-smile. “But my demand is simple. I want out of this fucking dungeon.”
“Okay. I’ll work on that. Might take a day or two to convince Wynn.”
“Nice try, sis. Lying isn’t your strong suit,” Kris said.
“I take over the Council soon. I’ll let you out then,” she snapped. “Is that good enough?”
“It’ll do,” he said. “What’s up?”
She took a moment to determine the best way to present her issue. “Wynn is going to do something incredibly stupid in a day, hence the reason he’s turning over the Council.”
Kris waited.
Stephanie explained Wynn’s plan as quickly as possible. By the end of it, Kris was leaning forward in interest.
“Amazing,” he said at last. “I had no idea. No one did.” He shook his head. “You want to stop him, I assume.”
“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation.
“Probably smart. There’s a good chance the breaches will open if his power disappears.”
Stephanie said nothing, but she hadn’t considered that Wynn’s power kept the breaches closed in her equation. Was that the threat Fate and the Oracle foresaw? A literal Hell on earth?
“There’s a chance they won’t, too, if he’s technically still alive,” Kris said, debating.
“If we stop him, we don’t have to find out.”
“What are you proposing?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “I know what I believe to be his weakness, but I don’t know if it’s enough to stop him.”
“His family,” Kris guessed. “Yeah, I wouldn’t count on that, though he’s taken a liking to you.”
“My thought was, if our lives – all of them – were in danger, he wouldn’t follow through,” she said. “The kind of danger where he’d have to use up the favors he’s collected.”
“It might delay his ambition but not stop it.”
“Maybe that’s enough for now. We can let Karma do the rest. He won’t be able to resist her much longer.”
Kris was quiet, studying her with predatory quiet similar to their father’s.
“That’s all I got,” Stephanie said. “I don’t know. Maybe we can all be trapped in Hell or something. The Dark One allegedly doesn’t issue favors often or easily. If Wynn used up that one, maybe he’d have to wait a few thousand years for another opportunity to pop up.”
“It’d be enough to garner Wynn’s attention, but may not be enough to encourage him to stop,” Kris said. “While our father’s weakness may be his family, he chose you to take over and trusts you with the safety of our society. What if we upped the ante?”
“Meaning …”
“You need to die-dead.”
“You may overestimate how much he cares for me,” Stephanie said. Already, her mind was working through the scenario.
“It wouldn’t be just you. With no one to head the Council, the Immortals could fall into chaos,” he added. “You could send Kiki and Rhyn back here before you do it, leaving the Council completely vacant.”
Her soul was in Hell, the property of Deidre. Stephanie wouldn’t be sent to the Underworld, and she’d collected several favors to date from Death, Chaos, Karma, and Fate. If she used one or all of those to negotiate with Darkyn, could she guarantee she wouldn’t be permanently dead? During her initial meeting with Deidre, the queen of Hell had shared with Stephanie the fact that only two deities could resurrect someone: Death and the Dark One.
Fate had warned her against negotiating with Darkyn at all. But if she fulfilled her end of the bargain with Deidre and replaced Wynn, Stephanie would earn her soul back. Perhaps, she could negotiate a temporary death and return with her soul. If Wynn were made aware that his sons were imprisoned by Darkyn, and Stephanie’s soul and body were in Hell, would that be enough to dislodge him from his current path?
Or was her death what Kris secretly wanted?
Stephanie studied her brother’s features. Like his father, he revealed nothing. Killing her would give him a chance to seize control of the Council once more.
“What if someone threatens to kill me?” she asked.
“Wynn sees through threats. If you want this to work, it’s got to be extreme. All his sons go to Hell, and his daughter dies-dead. I’d say that’s the minimum.”
“Scorched earth,” she murmured.
“Exactly. If you can talk his mate into attempted suicide, that’d probably help, too.”
“Karma is too crazy to attempt suicide,” Stephanie replied.
On the surface, she saw why Kris wanted them to go as far as they could. But she couldn’t shake the idea he was as ambitious as Wynn and would leap at the opportunity to reclaim the Council. As an advisor, he was likely indispensable.
As an ally? Stephanie wouldn’t trust him at all.
“We run the risk that Wynn leaves me dead and you all in Hell,” she mused.
“He’s not going to want to leave the Immortals exposed. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t bother transitioning power,” Kris pointed out. “If you were Wynn, what would you do?”
“Whatever it takes,” she replied. “Everything it takes.”
“Then you need to be more dedicated to stopping him than he is to succeeding.”
Stephanie dwelled on this idea. She had to be willing to go farther than he would. It was the only way to beat him at his own game. She couldn’t shake the doubt from her mind about what Wynn would choose: his family or his status as a deity. He’d been willing to give away his Immortal soul once before. The Immortal society had been stable at that point and Kris in charge.
If she made it clear his decision would destroy both, she’d push things as far as she could. The ball would be in his court.
Did she believe in him enough to risk everything?
“Let me think about it,” she said and stood. “I’ll be back later.”
“Tell Andre I said hello,” Kris said with a smile.
Stephanie left, creeped out by how the other members of her family always predicted her next move.
Deep in thought, she walked through the catacombs. The stale air and narrow passageways didn’t bother her, not when she was seriously considering the prospect of asking to be killed. If she believed Wynn would stop what he was doing, she wouldn’t feel as uneasy about the solution. But she wasn’t confident of how he’d react, despite what Wynn claimed about the greater good and protecting his family.
She returned to the first floor, where she was expected to perform petitioner duty before shadowing Wynn the rest of the day.
She summoned Andre before leaving the private corridor leading into the interior of the castle.
Her brother appeared with a smile that faded when he witnessed the grave expression on her face.
Stephanie inched closer to him and lowered her voice. “I have a crazy idea,” she said. She gave him the same background about Wynn she’d provided Kris before launching into her terrible, terrible plan.
Peace studied her hard.
“My only concern,” she said when she finished, “is if it’s enough and whether or not I can trust anything Kris says to do.”
Peace appeared to be formulating his response carefully. “You can’t trust Kris,” he started. “But he’s brilliant in the same way Wynn is. You will have to evaluate everything he tells you. I agree this solution is likely to catch Wynn’s attention. It’s also dangerous to predict how you think Wynn might act. He might pause but not stop, especially if he feels like he’s being manipulated.”
“We’d have to make it look real, that somehow, Darkyn got hold of them and killed me.”
“The other real danger is striking a deal with Darkyn. He won’t lose, Stephanie,” Andre warned.
“You agree with Kris about me dying?” she asked skeptically.
“Yes and no. I agree with Kris that you are Wynn’s successor for a reason. What I can’t determine is if your death would be enough, or if Wynn would appoint someone else then go about his business. Darkyn isn’t going to negotiate to resurrect you without a substantial price tag. Wynn would have to choose between you and becoming a god.”
In that light, Stephanie wasn’t convinced she’d win. “It’s also Karma,” she reasoned. “He’d lose her, too, if he became a god. Maybe we need to pile as much onto this bonfire as possible.”
“If you’re going to pull out all the stops, you’d need to make this an apocalyptic scenario. There’s no going back and no guarantee you’ll survive.”
“I want to believe, if forced to choose between his duty to the greater good, and his ego, he’d choose us.”
“Stephanie, I can’t guarantee you he would,” Andre said quietly, sadly. “I want to believe in him as much as you do, but I simply don’t know.”
Her mind had shifted to creating an apocalyptic scenario. The thought emerging from the back of her mind was crazy – and perfect. The crisis she created wouldn’t have to look real – it’d have to be real. Everything and everyone Wynn remotely cared about would have to be in danger, and only he could prevent the worst from happening.
She inadvertently glanced towards Trayern, who watched from a distance. Everything the demon and guardian angel had been teaching her about weaknesses gave her an idea.
What if she made it real enough her brothers didn’t know what was going to happen? No one would – except for her. She’d take Kris’ suggestions and go one step further.
“I need to talk to someone,” she said. “Can you let Kiki know I’m sticking him with petitioner duty again?”
“Of course.”
Stephanie smiled at her oldest brother and started past him.
“Stephanie,” he said quietly. “Don’t act without talking to me. These are dangerous waters.”
She nodded without stopping.
Stephanie returned to her room, where Mithra waited. She sat beside him on the couch.
“I need to know what exactly it is you do, aside from block my presence from demons,” she said to the ancient angel addicted to reality TV.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Mithra said with a smile. “I have the knowledge of all the angels in my head, and I can protect you from more than demons. I can accompany your soul into the Underworld, if you choose, and advocate for you to be brought back. I can identify threats you don’t know exist and alert you to them.”
“Is Trayern a threat?” she asked
“He is not as of this moment. That can change. He is a demon.”
“You can leave me here with him then, right, without violating your duty as assigned by Raphael?”
Mithra frowned. “No.”
“Could you protect my soul, wherever it is, and leave me here?” she rephrased. “This is new territory for everyone. Do you have any rule against this?”
Mithra appeared to debate internally. “We do not.”
“Then you can do it, by deity and Immortal logic.” She glanced towards Trayern, who had assumed his spot by the door. “If I told you where my soul is, can you go there now?”
“I believe so.”
“Will you take a message to the person who has it?” she asked. “Can you tell her I’ll replace Wynn soon, and I’ll see her a few minutes after he steps down?”
Mithra nodded. “Where is your soul?”
“Hell,” she replied. “It’s safe right now, but I want to make sure Darkyn can’t do anything to it.”
“Hell,” Mithra repeated with a snort. “Just like old times.”
“I’m not going to ask. I just want it protected,” she said. She didn’t know if Mithra guarding her soul would protect her from Darkyn, post-death, but she didn’t have any other option. “You can’t be two places at once, so I’d rather you go there, since that’s more important.”
“Wise, if you’re concerned about resurrection,” he said. “I can prevent Darkyn from destroying or trading or selling it. I cannot force him to resurrect you or release you from Hell.”
“Good enough.”
Mithra rose, with the aid of his cane. “I will see you soon.”
She nodded.
The ancient guardian angel summoned a portal and left.
Stephanie remained seated, aware of how dangerous her plan would be. Andre was correct; there was no guarantee anything would go according to how she envisioned it.
I need my mate. She rubbed her face. Fear trickled into her as she considered all the warnings she’d been given about not dealing with Darkyn directly.
At this point, if she didn’t commit to her plan more than Wynn did to his, she’d never save him and their people.
It was all or nothing.
Rather, all or Hell.