18

THEIR WICKED, WICKED WAYS

Time? Evening if the dark sky is any indication

Shangri-La

I felt my face. Oh, man. I seriously needed to stop letting people hit me over the head. Brain damage started to happen after enough of those, didn’t it?

No bruises, no broken bones, no blindfold or eyes swollen shut . . . at least they were professionals and above beating me to a pulp. Well, except for the throbbing pain in my head from being hit. Dennings was going to pay for that if I ever got a chance.

Funny the things you remember after someone knocks you out. It was the scent of pine mixed with rotting autumn leaves that stayed with me as the wave of nausea crested. And the nightmare replaying over and over of an unconscious Rynn being dragged off.

Okay, Owl. Time to open your eyes . . . Oh the light hurt, though the dark storm clouds that had moved in overhead dampened the effect. A peel of thunder rolled through Shangri-La, shaking the ground right to its core. Not a good sign.

From my spot lying on the floor, I took stock of my new surroundings. I was still in the courtyard with a skeleton crew of Zebras—three that I could see, probably four. Dev and Texas were tied up beside me. I was also tied up, but no one had thought to stick me upright. Dennings’s work, I was guessing.

Captain was stuck in a sturdy metal cage sitting in the corner with a large rock holding it in place. Captain didn’t like stationary carriers. He preferred ones he could knock over—made it easier to roll them across the floor when it suited him.

I wondered which unlucky mercenary lost fingers getting him in there.

There was no sign of Michigan, or Dennings, or Carpe, for that matter. That I could live with.

“How’s it feel to be back in ropes?” Texas said.

I managed to push myself up to a sitting position despite my hands being bound behind my back. First problem solved—now for the next hundred. “How long was I out?”

“An hour, give or take,” Texas said as another roll of thunder ran through Shangri-La, followed by lightning this time. “And as to the weather?” He glanced up. “In six years all I’ve ever seen is a mild rainstorm. Even then the sun still shone through.”

Carpe and Neil both said the balance was already screwed to high heaven. Where did they take them? “Neil and Rynn?” I asked.

It was Dev who answered this time. “To the temple—the one you and your friend came out of.” After a pause he added, “We’ve been hearing blasts from inside—and feeling the aftershocks.”

Probably to get the suit out. I just hoped that we’d managed to bury it better than they’d anticipated.

“Why would they take Neil?” Texas asked me.

I chose my answer carefully. “Most likely they wanted someone who was familiar with Shangri-La and the magic running this place.” There was of course another reason: the spell they planned to use to force the armor on Rynn needed a human blood sacrifice . . . or something worse, though I chose not to say that.

Texas took it better than I expected. “A little early for the IAA suits to be involving themselves, isn’t it? I always thought they showed up after the damage was done.”

“They’ve graduated from cleanup crews to offensive on account of them getting caught with their pants down a little too much as of late, I imagine.” We all fell silent as one of the Zebras did another pass. From the two black eyes Texas was sporting, I was guessing that was the incentive.

“This turned into one hell of a clusterfuck,” Texas said once they passed.

“Welcome to the modern world of archaeology,” Dev said.

While they glared at the mercenaries, I took stock of what we had—or, more accurately, didn’t have. They’d taken what few weapons and equipment we’d had. I watched the mercenaries as they finished their round of the courtyard.

Sometimes the best way to get some forward motion is to throw a stick . . . and as far as I could see, that was the only break I was going to get.

“Hey!” I shouted. Texas swore.

“Are you out of your mind?” Dev hissed.

I ignored both of them. The two Zebras exchanged a dark glance between themselves. “Yeah, I’m talking to you. How ’bout some water over here? Or service.”

Either they suspected me of something or couldn’t believe I was that much of an idiot. A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B, I imagined. Either way, they headed over.

“Quiet,” one of the mercenaries said with a much thicker Afrikaans accent than Williams.

I did no such thing. “Get me a water—no, make that a beer and then we’ll talk about me shutting up.” I made a show of glancing up at the sky. “Wouldn’t mind an umbrella here either. Think we’re due for rain?”

“I’m being serious,” the mercenary said, giving my thigh a rough kick. He was visibly upset now that his bluster and threats weren’t having the expected or desired effect.

“So am I. About a beer. Go get it.” Come on, you know you want to lose your temper. I’m an asshole, I’m demanding and have no respect for your gun or authority. Teach me a lesson—just do something stupid. I’m all tied up; how much harder could it get?

For a moment I thought the mercenary might come closer, might take me on, might let himself make a mistake . . .

“That’s enough.” Williams stepped out of the foliage. The mercenary I’d been baiting looked like he might argue, but Williams added, “Fall back to checking the perimeter. Relieve Malcolm, he’s been sitting on a dock for four hours.”

The mercenary nodded and without even a glance at me disappeared from sight down the trail. After a nod from Williams, the other two followed. Williams then stood in front of me, arms crossed.

“No offense meant, but I figured it was going to take you a few more hours to crawl out of those tunnels,” I said.

Williams only smiled. “Are you trying to start a brawl?”

“What can I say? Inaction offends me.”

He made a tsking noise. “I had a lieutenant like you a few years back.”

“Let me guess. You fired him?”

“Didn’t have to. Ended up dead all on his own.”

I shouldn’t have smiled back—I knew it was a bad idea. Williams wasn’t a twenty-something underling with a temper and something to prove. “And I’m betting having the supernaturals running free isn’t going to be nearly as good for business as you think it’ll be.”

Williams gave me a casual shrug. “I have it on good authority that most of the time, not even the elves can predict the outcome of their own clandestine machinations. And make no doubt about it—I’m as disposable as you are to the lot of them at the best of times, though there’s one thing I’ve got going for me that you don’t.”

“And what’s that?” I asked.

Williams crouched down to my level. “I carry a big stick. I’ve done you a favor keeping you here with my men.”

I didn’t bother arguing. He probably had; Dennings and anyone from the IAA would have had far worse for me in store. Instead I said, “No one does favors for free.”

Williams stood back up and nodded. “No, they don’t. On that we’re agreed.”

I watched him leave and two more guards returned to take up position. Williams’s message was loud and clear. Stop screwing around. I’m watching you, and I’m not stupid.

“Well, that went about as well as anything you do goes,” Texas offered.

I would have told him to shut it—my pounding headache and ears really didn’t need it, but something else caught my attention. At first I thought it was a bird, except for the fact that it was sticking out of a wooden door. It was a dart . . . and there was another one on the courtyard tiles. I was certain they hadn’t been there a moment before.

I watched one fall out of the air close to the mercenary’s feet. He stepped down and picked it up, looking at it before another one dropped and lodged in his neck. He toppled over, and about five darts later, the other two in sight fell as well.

Normally I’d be happy about a rescue—any rescue—except I knew who had to be behind it.

Carpe stepped into the clearing, watching me, wary. Captain let out a low growl that made Carpe jump as he edged by the cage.

“Speak of the devil,” Texas murmured.

Carpe stopped a few feet away from us—nowhere near close enough for us to lynch him while we were still tied up. I held my breath and schooled my face to neutral until he came over and began to untie my hands.

“I knocked the other one out already,” he said. “We have about five minutes or so before they’ll be expected to check in,” he said.

As soon as the ropes restraining my hands were gone, I leaped at him, knocking him to the ground.

“Hey!”

“Son of a bitch,” I said. “All this time you knew what they were planning.”

“Not everything! And all I did was make a deal—”

“And look where that got us!? You idiot.”

He managed to loosen my hand. I pinned his neck with my forearm instead.

“It’s not that simple, Owl. It’s one person against saving the world. I can’t put one person over the greater good like that—it goes against everything we believe!”

The greater good. I wondered how many people through history had said just that. “That’s just it, Carpe—a world where people toss each other over for the greater good isn’t the kind of world I want to live in.”

“Just listen to me, will you?” he said as I tried to punch him. “I think I know what they’re planning to do with Rynn and how.”

I loosened my grip. “You’ve got three seconds.”

“Three? Fuck me, three—”

“Two.”

“Fine. They plan on making Rynn the Electric Samurai because he was one of their best warriors before he told them to fuck off. They’ve wanted him back ever since but haven’t been able to do anything until now. Take away his free will and make him the Electric Samurai, under their control. Alix, there was nothing you could have done. They’ve been planning this for years, and when you found the spell book, it gave them the means. World Quest provided the opportunity.”

“Did you know? When you made me go after that spell book?” I slammed his head against the stone tiles. A roll of thunder rumbled overhead and I smelled rain on the air.

“I swear I didn’t know! Now will you stop hitting me?”

Would I stop hitting him? After he betrayed and delivered Rynn to a band of real monsters? Not a chance. But Texas stopped me, wrapping his bound hands over my head and dragging me off. “You can beat an apology out of him later. After we’re all the hell out of here,” he said, holding up his still-bound hands.

He was right. I let go of Carpe and watched him scramble back up. Captain must have disagreed, because he let out a cross between a growl and a meow. “Don’t for a second think this is over, Carpe. You should have told us.”

Carpe frowned. “Could have, should have, didn’t . . .” Carpe set about untying Texas, and I helped Dev. “Look, we need a distraction. A big one,” Carpe said. “They have them in the temple, and it’s well guarded.”

“How the hell do you expect us to lure away a band of mercenaries? That’s not a plan, Carpe. Not even remotely!” I finished with Dev and opened the latch to Captain’s cage. He lost no time darting into the foliage, where he could hide and watch.

“I have an idea.”

We all turned to look at Texas. “You need something big, that’s going to force them all to do something—give them a bit of a scare?” He nodded toward the other side of the courtyard. There was a statue on each corner—a dragon, a dog, a monster I couldn’t immediately identify. Closest to us there was a stone tiger. The temple district was littered with them . . . “Are those what I think they are?”

“Reason we never set up camp here. No one with half a brain did. Didn’t want to trigger one accidently.”

Golems were an interesting category of magical device. Popular up until the Middle Ages, they’d been used to guard treasure and people, but as far as magical constructs went, they were simple. They might be able to move, but the commands were literally set in stone. There was no improvisation. If you made it to chase intruders, it would chase anyone it wasn’t programmed to ignore . . . which occasionally meant the house cat or the hapless owner. “I’ve had bad luck with golems.”

“You know how to set one off then?” he said, not bothering to hide his optimism.

I crawled over to the nearest unconscious mercenary and removed his gun. I was familiar with the mechanism if not the gun itself. “Yeah, more or less.” Before anyone had a chance to argue, I aimed and fired at the dragon.

Texas grabbed the gun from me before I could fire at the second golem.

“You said activate it!”

“Yeah, I figured by turning on the bindings! Just what the hell kind of archaeology school did you go to? ‘Hold my beer and watch this’?”

“Guys,” Dev said.

We turned as the dragon golem shuddered, moving its first few inches in centuries. Its eyes sparked like glowing red embers, and it fixed them on me.

“Run,” I said.

I took the gun from Texas and fired at the other three golems before dropping the weapon and running for the path after Carpe, Texas, and Dev—the same way the mercenaries had gone. “Head for the temple,” I said. With any luck, the golems would view mercenaries carrying weapons as larger threats than we were.

As we ran, I could hear them catching up, their stone feet hitting the ancient steps in rapid succession. Of course they were gaining. But I could also hear the mercenaries up ahead. I caught sight of the temple entrance, guarded. The mercenaries saw us now—they were pointing and scrambling, but whether from us or the golems . . .

Time to remove ourselves from the line of sight.

Captain shot ahead of us and veered off the trail into the foliage.

“Follow my cat,” I said, and plunged into the foliage after Captain. Turns out it was less an outcrop and more a steep hillside blanketed with fallen leaves—years’ worth. My feet shot out from under me and I started to slide down. I heard Carpe, Dev, and Texas follow suit. I also heard gunfire behind us, the roar of a golem, and, more importantly, no large stone objects hitting the hillside.

The slide Captain had found wound its way down until it reached a flat clearing. The chaos and screams stayed above us.

Captain was waiting for us, licking his paws as the others slid to a stop beside me. “Your cat is an asshole,” Texas said.

I got up and checked the area around us. A smooth, unnatural wall was half overgrown with foliage. I brushed some of the vines aside. It was the temple—the bottom of it. “Jackpot,” I said. All we had to do was find a different entrance. They wouldn’t even know we were inside.

There was a rumble of thunder, followed closely by a sheet of lightning. The ground shook in the start of an earthquake.

“It’s getting worse,” Texas said.

“They must have opened the gates again and let more people in. I told them not to, that it would affect the balance,” Carpe offered. He glanced up at the sky, a nervous look on his face. “For all we know, ­Shangri-La is about to implode with all the new activity.”

Like a time bomb sitting on a rickety shelf without a timer.

I ran my hand through my hair. Thankfully, the armor had laid off the prompts so I could think. Probably had its own immediate fate to worry about.

“I don’t think the mercenaries have uncovered the portal in the temple courtyard,” Texas said. “They got us before we got close, and like I said, it’s hidden.”

I nodded. If we were gone, there was no reason to leave guards. Not with the golems at any rate.

“And what’s to stop them from following us?” Dev argued. “Besides, they all lead to the middle of nowhere. Implode here or starve or freeze on the other side. Unless one of you has a cell phone shoved up your a—”

“We might have an alternative,” Texas said, “but we’ll need to get access to the computers. I might be able to get a message out through World Quest. Nothing substantial, mind you, but considering how busy Shangri-La is playing with the mercenaries and fucking up its own weather patterns, it shouldn’t be watching the game.”

If it worked, we could have someone waiting on the other side of the gate. . . .

“Okay, new plan,” I said, and pointed to Texas. “You and Carpe deal with the computers. Dev, you come with me, and we’ll see if we can find Rynn and Neil before the elves and IAA do something stupid. After that we’ll meet at the gate. Whoever gets there first opens it and goes through. No questions or waiting.”

Dev swore, but he didn’t argue.

Carpe, on the other hand . . . “I should come with you—” he started, then trailed off at the expression on my face.

“You know World Quest, you’ll be more help there.” I didn’t add that Carpe had done enough.

Carpe wasn’t about to let up though. His features twisted back into a frown.

“I’m sorry,” he tried again. “But I was trying to do what was right—”

I spun on him, my voice barely civil. “Listen up and listen good, Carpe. I will never trust you again as long as I live.”

He stared at me for a long second, then fell silent.

“Who do we contact?” Texas asked me.

“Ever wrangle vampires?” I asked.

Texas frowned at me. “Anyone ever tell you, you are one messed-up chick?”

“All the time.”

I felt the first snowflake land on my nose. I held out my hand. More large snowflakes fell, collecting on the ground around us.

“Gimme the contact info,” Texas said. “And hurry up. I don’t think this place is going to hold up much longer.”

I checked the bag I’d grabbed before running from the golems; it had belonged to a Zebra. There was a light, along with some other somewhat useful tools. The grenades were what I focused on. Next was Captain, who was swishing his tail by my feet. “You go with them,” I said, pointing to Texas. Captain snorted at me.

“There’ll be vampires.” That had him perk up—one of the few words he understood. He was listening, and regarding Texas less as an adversary and more as a potential means to chasing vampires. I picked him up and handed him to Texas. “You’ll need him to strike fear into vampires on the other side. That, and he’ll keep Carpe from misbehaving.” For once Texas didn’t argue.

I checked the grenades before swinging the stolen bag over my shoulder. I wouldn’t feel bad about trapping anyone in a tomb this time, Dennings and Nicodemous included. “Let’s hope we all don’t die,” I said, and with that we set off.

“Are you sure this is the right one?” Dev whispered from behind.

Mostly, I thought. Though I had to agree, it was awfully narrow—and dusty. I shook my head. Just the city trying to throw me off. “I’m positive it’s this way.”

“Then crawl faster, will you? I’m getting claustrophobic back here, and there are bugs,” Dev said, though his voice was muffled by the flashlight carried between his teeth.

There weren’t any bugs—that was Dev’s imagination—but still I picked up the pace. No saying what Shangri-La was up to. “Just keep your eye out for traps, and keep that flashlight on the stone.”

“I am.”

“No you’re not, you’re lighting up half the tunnel looking for bugs.” And that was when I saw an exit up ahead, about twenty feet or so.

Dev swore and grabbed my foot. The flashlight went out. A second later I saw why—a group of Zebras passed by the entrance. One even shone a flashlight down, but we were too far back.

I kept silent until they passed. We crawled faster this time, hoping to beat them before they returned.

“Good ears,” I whispered—or hoped I did. Mine had yet to recover from the dynamite.

“Speaking of ears, I don’t hear any more blasting.”

Meaning they more than likely had gotten back into the tomb and had the suit.

We reached the end of the tunnel and crawled out into a proper passageway. One we could stand in. It didn’t look familiar, but that was fine. All we needed to do was get to the center. We had to almost be there.

We heard a noise up ahead, and both of us made our way slowly toward it, until we found a ledge. We were on a balcony above a temple auditorium, and below, at the front, was Nicodemous, with Rynn on a temple slab.

All they needed was a pit full of lava.

“I hate it when life reflects movies,” Dev offered. “If anyone starts ripping out hearts, I’m leaving.”

“I’ll be right behind you.” Beside them was a standing sarcophagus . . . in two hollowed pieces. I spotted the desiccated body, skin and old cloth clinging to the bones like parchment. That had to be Jebe, discarded in a useless heap on the floor. But if that was the case, then where was the armor?

My heart sunk, stealing what little hope I’d mustered with it. Rynn wasn’t dressed in his black clothes. Instead, he had been dressed in black metal and leather plated armor, the very same style that would have been worn by Jebe. Small lightning bolts decorating the leather and metal flickered in the lamplight. That sealed it. Rynn was already wearing the Electric Samurai armor. I held on to the last trace of hope coursing through my blood, telling me I wasn’t too late.

I spotted Neil being held off on the far side of the platform, on the other side of the sarcophagus. Two elves had him on his knees, but he was still alive—though from the bruise on his face and the slump to his shoulders, he was worse for wear. And there was Williams, standing off to the side as well—smart of the man—along with more elves; three to be exact, though not pale like Nicodemous. They looked more like Carpe, though older. The scent of dried, decaying leaves and pine mixed with incense reached us.

All we needed to do was get down there. Rynn had to be close to waking up, unless they’d kept drugging him. All we needed was a distraction . . .

“Where’s the IAA woman?” Dev said, frowning.

Before I could answer, the telltale click of a gun sounded behind us. I swore and turned.

Dennings. Of course she’d be crawling around the temple like the rat she was . . .

“I had a hunch you might try and crash the party,” she said. “Was that your idea, the golems? Or just the city trying to kill everyone?”

I didn’t bother answering. Instead nodding toward the spectacle below. “You’re IAA. You can’t possibly think any of that is a good idea—” She made a tsking sound and I fell silent.

I expected threats. Instead she said, “You’re getting a better deal than most. Any other graduate student in your place would consider themselves lucky.”

“I’m not a graduate student anymore.”

“Not according to our agreement with the elves,” she smiled. It wasn’t friendly. “You’ve already been reenrolled. Repayment for past wrongs done. We won’t even go after your friends,” she said, turning the gun on Dev. “Including Nadya and Benjamin. See? We can be generous.”

“I’m not taking the deal.” Think, Owl. I searched for loose rocks . . . maybe I could shove her off the ledge.

In answer, a rumble coursed through the temple and the ground shook.

Dennings’s eyes went wide and she dropped the gun, trying to steady herself. Then she fell over. Dev was standing behind her, a palm-sized rock in his hand.

“Ever since they found me in Nepal, I’ve wanted to do that.”

I wrote it off to Karma. People tended to get theirs. Eventually.

“Let’s get Rynn and get the hell out of here while the place is still standing,” I said, and ran back to the ledge. Nicodemous and the elves were still presiding over Rynn. I looked for something to throw, but Dev’s rock wouldn’t do anything from this distance. I ran back to Dennings and grabbed her gun. I took the safety off and aimed for the floor below.

“Since when do you use guns?”

“I don’t,” I said, and fired. The bullet didn’t hit anything useful, but it made a lot of noise.

Our entrance earned a momentary glance from Nicodemous. I looked straight into his pale red eyes. “Hi!” I shouted. “Hear you’ve got a supernatural party for me to crash.”

Nicodemous’s mouth twisted into a snarl, exposing his pink teeth. And there, in his hands, was the spell book. The one Carpe had made me fetch all those months ago.

“Come on, just look at me—look at me, Rynn.”

“He’s not moving,” Dev said.

“I know that!” I’d hoped Rynn would be conscious enough to use our distraction and meet us partway. Which meant I needed a bigger distraction . . .

“Alix,” Dev said. I glanced back down to where Nicodemous and the elves were chanting. Sure enough, the black suit was now glowing an angry, disruptive red in response. It really didn’t want to be there. I was hoping to oblige it—at least halfway. I’d worry about that when we got there. I felt the suit pinging me, demanding I get it out of its predicament.

“Get in line,” I told it.

“Keep her from the ceremony,” Nicodemous said, then got back to his incantation from the book. The other elves began to secure the final pieces of the armor on Rynn.

The remaining mercenaries began to move our way. I fished a grenade and gun out of the bag I’d stolen and handed them both to Dev. “Lead them up the stairs—toss the grenade down once you’re up top. And stay ahead—they know what they’re doing.”

“What the hell are you planning on doing?”

I didn’t answer, in turn giving Dev a shove. “Just make sure you lead them away—and keep running until you reach the gate.”

The volume of the chanting increased. Rynn stirred on the bench below, and his eyes opened as a red mist surrounded him and the armor. They found me and were burning blue. “Alix, run!” he shouted.

Now that Rynn was struggling against the restraints, Nicodemous stepped up his pace. Rynn screamed as the angry red mist glowed and flared around him.

I aimed Dennings’s gun and fired it at the elf. It went high—I was a lousy shot from this distance. I needed to get closer. I started down the narrow stone staircase to the temple floor, taking the steps two and three at a time, pausing only as the temple shuddered. Must have been Dev dropping the grenade. Hopefully the mercenaries wouldn’t be getting back anytime soon.

I raced down the steps as fast as I could. The three elves rushed forward to meet me. I hesitated aiming the gun—shooting at Nicodemous was one thing, but firing at someone’s chest? I spotted a loose stone off to the side of one of the steps, and quickly found holes in the wall. There were an awful lot of them.

One, two—when the three elves were all in range, I jumped for the step and ducked. White-tipped darts shot out of the wall and lodged in their sides. A moment later they collapsed. Apparently elves were one supernatural with no immunity to poison.

Now all I needed to do was get close enough to hit Nicodemous—

But Nicodemous had vanished from the temple floor. I cautiously approached the slab and Rynn’s prone form.

My heart bottomed out, and I heard myself yell as I ran for the slab. Rynn was wearing the armor, but it had changed, warped itself. Like all the other reincarnations, it had molded itself into something that fit the times. Now it resembled the Kevlar armor I’d seen the mercenaries wearing. It fit like bike gear. It was simple and modernized, with nothing ornate to give its true identity away except for a small, silver lightning bolt etched over his heart. It was magic—I could feel the air tingling around me with static electricity—but it wouldn’t draw attention outside, not even on a street corner.

I couldn’t stop myself; maybe I wasn’t too late.

“Rynn?” I said, shaking his arm.

He opened his eyes and blinked, as if trying to clear a bad headache.

“Rynn?” I couldn’t believe it: he looked okay, not bloodthirsty, not crazy . . .

His eyes cleared as he looked around the temple. He fixed his gaze on me and frowned. It was cold—and blank. “Rynn, it’s me,” I tried. “Are you okay? Can you get up?”

He frowned down to where I was holding his arm. I let go and he sat up, still fixated on me with his gray eyes, darker than I remembered them.

“Alix,” he said, as if testing out a foreign word. He swung his feet down, and the leather boots the armor had decided to form touched softly on the ground.

I took a step back in spite of myself. It was Rynn—the same movements, the same features and expressions. I mean, he recognized me, obviously, but there was something in the way he watched me, as if trying to place me.

His nostrils flared, as if he was scenting the air around him. He was still staring at me, but his features took on a vexed expression. “It’s an interesting sensation,” he said. “I can feel your emotions, like a jumble, stronger than before. Theirs too,” he added, nodding at the elves and Neil, whose body had been left on the ground.

Rynn took a step toward me, but his motions reminded me more of a predatory cat than the person I knew.

“I can feel everything you feel,” he continued. “All those strange, mixed emotions tumbling over themselves—relief, fear, anger in there settled underneath all those layers. Even love.” He looked away from me. “I remember them. All of them—it’s like a signature imprinted on me. The funny thing is, I don’t care anymore. I used to, I know I did.” His expression hardened as he looked back at me. “What did you do to me?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do anything, Rynn. It’s the armor—and the elves. They did—”

But he shook his head, and I saw the first glimpse of anger—­something that was usually foreign on Rynn’s face. He never showed anger, not like that. “Not that. Before. What did you do to me, Alix? Why do I remember caring?”

There are a few moments in my life about which I can remember everything, every detail, clearly. Most of them aren’t very nice: being kicked out of grad school, beaten up by vampires, cursed by an artifact, losing Captain. Then there are a couple of really clear good moments—most of them with Rynn and Nadya.

This was definitely the worst.

“I swear I didn’t do anything to you. It’s the suit. You can tell I’m telling the truth.”

“Or you think you are,” he said, and his lip twisted up in the start of a snarl. I wracked my brain for what I’d read in Jebe’s journal—anything that could explain this . . .

But there was nothing. I started to back away. Slowly.

It couldn’t just be that he was supernatural . . .

I turned to Nicodemous. “What did you do to him?” I said, still backing away from Rynn.

Nicodemous was focused on Rynn though. “We made some alterations while binding him to the suit. He was always unpredictable—­difficult to control. Now he won’t be.”

Rynn was still watching me, as if trying to remember something, grasping for a thought or faded memory on the edge of his mind, just out of reach.

Finally he turned his attention on the elves and Nicodemous. “Her,” he said, nodding at me. “Who is she?”

The first glimpse of uncertainty crossed Nicodemous’s face. “No one. Leave her. I gave you a direct order.”

Rynn ignored the order. “She doesn’t strike me as no one,” he said.

I clenched my fists. His voice was strained, but I could hear the thin layer of doubt in it. Rynn was in there somewhere—he had to be. If we could just get the suit off him . . .

“There is an adjustment,” Nicodemous continued. “All will be explained, and your misgivings will fade in time.” There was condescension in Nicodemous’s voice, so sure was he the spell had worked. Here was the thing. Magic like that never worked out the way you supposed it would.

The gun felt heavy in my hand as I watched Nicodemous cross the temple floor toward Rynn. I’d never killed anyone before, but if there was ever a time to cross that line in the sand . . .

I lifted my arm. It was shaking. I clicked off the safety and aimed.

Someone stopped me. It was Dev. He took the gun out of my hands. “You can thank me later,” he said, then nodded at Rynn and added, “look at his hand.”

I spotted it. A knife. Thin and black . . . I remembered one of the things Williams had said about the elves: that even the elves never knew what their plans would bring.

Nicodemous stood up straighter and placed his hands behind his back—the consummate politician stance, I suppose.

Rynn looked at me once more over his shoulder and his eyes narrowed, as if he was trying to remember something—or trying to decide. Whatever it was, Nicodemous didn’t like it. “I gave you an order. Leave the girl alone,” Nicodemous said.

That got Rynn’s attention. He began to calmly walk over to the elf.

Nicodemous relaxed. “That’s more like it. I have things for you to do. You needn’t waste time on her or any of them.” He sounded more annoyed than concerned. He simply stood there and watched as Rynn approached.

Some of the mercenaries had returned, and they were all watching Rynn as well, not certain what to do. “Quick—go get Michigan,” I said to Dev.

“And you think I’ll follow? That I’ll listen to you?” Rynn said to Nicodemous, his mouth curling up at the corners.

“Because I made you. You’re bound to the elves to do our bidding. This time you can’t leave.”

Rynn seemed to regard him. Nicodemous might have missed it, but Rynn in his current state didn’t strike me as anyone’s servant.

But Nicodemous either didn’t see what I did or didn’t deign it a threat, even as Rynn drew the black knife back.

The knife slid into Nicodemous’s chest. The elf’s eyes went wide and he gasped, but even though his body arched, I don’t know if he realized what had happened. Not until he looked down at the blade sticking out of his chest and the blood pooling around him. It seemed to dawn on him as he looked back up—right into Rynn’s snarling face.

“I might not know what I feel for her, but I do remember how much I hate elves. That hasn’t changed one bit,” Rynn said, and drove the knife deeper into Nicodemous’s chest before taking it out and sliding it across the elf’s neck.

I still wasn’t certain Nicodemous realized what had happened even as he collapsed to the floor—dead.

It was Karma of a sort—bloody, rendered Karma.

I started to call out, but Dev clamped a hand over my mouth and dragged me off the platform and out of Rynn’s line of sight. With him was Neil, looking drained but alive. “What are you doing?” I snarled at Dev once I got his hand free.

“Preventing you from getting his attention and getting us both killed.” He nodded back to the platform above us.

Rynn was focused on the other elves now, still lying prone on the steps. The mercenaries were oddly frozen. Rynn glanced back up at us, but for now the elves were winning his attention. He dragged them back to the altar.

The ground shook, stronger than it had before, loosening rocks above . . . all that magic in one place, then a death, and supernatural blood . . . shit.

Michigan went white. “We need to get out of here—now,” he said.

He was right; as much as it pained me, we started to run back up the steps.

We were halfway up the steps before Rynn called out. “Alix?” His voice echoed off the temple walls.

I stopped and turned, slowly.

The mercenaries started to reassemble around him.

Dev grabbed my arm and tried to steer me away. “Come on, we have to leave now—before he decides to get rid of you the same way he just did Nicodemous.”

But I had to give it one last try. “Rynn, the elves did something to you. You need to take the armor off.”

He just stood there and stared at me, on the verge of taking another step.

“Just . . . will you say something?” I shouted, hoping I’d somehow managed to get through. He had to be in there still, somewhere.

He shook his head. “Something made me head back this way, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.” He turned away, back toward the mercenaries. They didn’t attack; they fell in line.

He was using his power, a lot of power. More than I’d ever seen him use before. Son of a bitch, he was compelling all of them.

If I could keep breaking his attention . . . “Rynn, don’t walk away from me!”

He crossed the floor and was up the steps faster than I would have thought possible. His gloved hand wrapped around my throat. I wanted to struggle, tried to, but I couldn’t move. Rynn had frozen me in place.

He studied my face. “To be completely honest, I can’t tell if I loved or hated you,” he said, his eyes narrowing, cruel, calculating. “I think it might have been a bit of both.” He brought his face close enough to mine that I could smell him. His scent had changed to something darker, more sinister. “I’ll warn you once, Alix. Stay out of my way.”

He let go, and I fell to the ground as he strode back to the mercenaries.

I let Rynn walk away. I’d failed. Completely. When it actually mattered, I’d still managed to screw up.

Arms reached under my shoulder as Dev and Michigan both helped me up. “We need to get out of here before he compels us to jump off a fucking cliff,” Dev whispered.

I made myself move, following them blindly until I remembered something. “The book!” I broke their grips and raced back to the platform as the temple shook again. If the book had gotten Rynn into the suit, maybe there was something in there that could get him out.

I skidded to a halt by Nicodemous’s dead body, the red blood collecting in a pool around him, smelling even more like death and decay. I hesitated only for a moment before prying the text from his dead hands, none too gently. I tucked the book into my bag and ran back up the steps, catching up to Neil and Dev as they reached the tunnel out. As we crawled in, yelling from outside reached us. I wasn’t sure if Rynn was compelling more mercenaries or just making the ones he had compelled shoot the ones he hadn’t.

We spilled out of the temple as the entirety of Shangri-La shook to its core. There was a thick layer of heavy snow on the ground now, and the sky was filled with pitch-black clouds, the lanterns hanging from the buildings the only light to see by. We ducked behind a building as screams drew closer and a group of IAA suits bolted past, chased by the tiger golem.

Won’t lie. Hard to feel bad about that one. It was a shame Dennings wasn’t with them.

“This way,” Neil said, and set off at a breakneck pace up the hillside steps. We followed. I just hoped to hell the gate was still open—or functioning . . .

We were so set on reaching the gate that we didn’t notice Williams and what remained of his band—which included those who hadn’t been in the temple or hadn’t been maimed by golems—until we ran into them. We all skidded to a halt, staring at each other. A few of his men pulled guns.

“No offense, but I really don’t think this is the time or place to be shooting each other,” I said.

Williams nodded. The guns went down. They weren’t bad ­people. Another time, another place . . . “Make sure you get your men out soon—before the IAA and the elves. There’s a problem with numbers. Not every­one will be able to leave,” I said.

Williams gave me a wary nod.

“We’re even now,” I said.

Williams smiled. “I suppose we are.”

And with that, we went our opposite ways.

Between dodging golems and IAA, it took us longer than we would have liked to reach the portal. Texas and Carpe were still there. “I thought I told you two to open it.”

“Fuck off, Hiboux. We decided to wait.” Texas didn’t say anything else, but gave Michigan a nod.

I would have yelled more, but the wind had picked up and waves were breaking the ships in the harbor into pieces. In the distance, a temple crumbled to the ground, and Shangri-La shook. Captain found me and huddled by my feet.

“They’ve opened another gate,” Carpe yelled.

Rynn—he must have opened it. “Then get the gate open!” I just hoped we could still leave . . .

The ground shook again, and I heard screams as a temple toppled across the square. If it kept up, we had minutes at most.

Texas cut his hand and dropped the blood on the three diagrams—the one on the floor, then the temple, and then the courtyard wall. The gate shimmered—and wavered—and for a moment I thought it might collapse. But it shuddered into existence. We all stared at each other. Who got to go first?

“Michigan, Texas, Dev, Captain, Carpe, then me,” I said. Why Carpe before me? Because as much as it pained me to do it, I’d been in charge of this disaster. I watched as Michigan and then Texas and then Dev went through the gate. I set Captain down and pushed him toward it. He sat on his haunches and looked at me as if I was an idiot. All of Shangri-La shook, and to my horror, the blue-and-yellow temple started to crack. Lousy, no-good cat. I scooped him up and held him out to Carpe. “You take him through,” I said.

But he didn’t take Captain. Instead, he took hold of my shoulders.

“What the hell?” I snarled.

“I told you I was sorry!” he shouted at me over the wind and thunder, and gave me a shove, sending me through.

And that was the last thing I heard from him before Captain and I hit the ground on the other side. I waited, but Carpe didn’t follow. My nerves were so raw from everything that had just happened that I didn’t know how I felt in that moment—about anything—except completely numb all the way down to my bones. All I managed to do was push myself up on my knees before puking up the entirety of my stomach.

We were stuck on a mountaintop. Definitely the Andes, though whatever civilization this had been had long been lost. We waited a day. It was cold, but I had to admit I welcomed the numbing effect it had—on my body and my emotions.

I welcomed the numbness, because otherwise I felt empty without Rynn. I kept going over and over how I could have made it down to the platform faster . . . what I could have done differently . . . how I hadn’t seen it coming from the beginning . . .

After all the times Rynn had saved me, the times he’d been there for me . . . At the end of the day, when it had counted, when it had been my turn, I’d come up completely short.

I didn’t know if I could ever forgive myself for that, even if I managed to fix things. I spent a lot of time wondering how much the suit had taken over his thoughts, and how much had been the spell the elves had used.

“Stay out of my way.” That had been the last thing he’d said to me.

Hell would freeze over before that happened. If there was anything of him left, anything at all, I’d find a way to get him out.

When I wasn’t dwelling on Rynn and my own failures, Carpe also invaded my thoughts. I was also glad for the numbness, because all my last exchange with Carpe did was confuse me.

Goddamned stupid elf.

Considering we hadn’t had an exact location for the gate beyond—assorted ruins in the Andes—I was surprised when a helicopter circled us in the early evening. More so when it landed and a heavily reinforced cat carrier, four bottles of water, and four gas masks were tossed out toward us. Peace offerings, vampire style.

“May I offer you a ride?” a thick French accent shouted down at us.

I wrangled Captain into the carrier—no small feat—and got him subdued to a low growl before stepping onboard.

Alexander went so far as to offer me a hand. I pulled myself in. “Just keep to your side of the helicopter, Alexander.”

“I believe this is the start of a wonderful friendship.”

I knew I should be civil, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Stuff it.”

We rode most of the way in silence, until Dev finally asked, “What do we do now?”

I shrugged. “My advice? Lay low, stay far away from the IAA, and run if a dragon offers you a job. ”

Dev made a noncommittal shrug and turned his attention back to the others. I was staring at a laptop I’d reluctantly borrowed from Alexander. Getting back into my email outweighed my indignation at having to talk to a vampire.

A few messages from Lady Siyu—which I ignored—and one from Nadya.

It was simple, straightforward, and had the dire undertones that lack of details often gave.

Come to Tokyo as soon as you can.

Looked like I was headed for Japan.

I watched the night world pass by outside. As an afterthought, and searching for something to do, I opened my phone and messaged Lady Siyu.

Things just got a hell of a lot worse. I hope you’re happy. And I’m keeping my cat.

For once I didn’t get a response. I counted that as a good thing.

Somehow I figured this had just gotten a lot bigger than just Mr. Kurosawa and Lady Siyu’s war with the other supernaturals . . . and I had the unsettling feeling that Rynn had just become the center of it.

Captain stopped his growling and gave me a forlorn mew, as if sensing where my thoughts had gone.

“You said it, Captain,” I told him.

I’m Alix Hiboux, antiquities thief for hire, specializing in the supernatural. I need to save the world from my cursed supernatural boyfriend.

As Texas was so fond of saying, “Sucks to be you, Hiboux.”