The Demigod (Seven Sins MC #6)

Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Nox

It was strange to see my siblings not engaged in torture, to hear snippets of their casual conversations, to see them cuddling close to partners or plucking snacks off of trays of food.

There was a sweet scent in the room that I didn’t recognize, but it overwhelmed everything else. And, oddly, it made my belly grumble.

Focus.

I needed to focus.

The faster I could get the drinks drugged, the sooner I could get back out and drop my shadow. Before, hopefully, it drained me completely.

The problem was there seemed to be no communal pitcher or bottle I could spike.

I was going to need to get their cups individually.

My heart thudded painfully in my chest as I moved closer to Momus.

True, he wasn’t exactly a threat. He hadn’t shown any violent tendencies at all. But there was no telling if he would try to stop Daemon from going upstairs, from freeing whoever was helping keep Nemesis captive.

He had to be drugged too.

Luckily, his arm was draped casually on the arm of a chair as he turned his head to accept a grape straight off a bunch from a beautiful woman.

Daemon seemed relatively sure that only a drop or two of the liquid would be enough to completely incapacitate the gods, so that was all I gave Momus, wanting to make sure I had enough left for everyone else.

As soon as the drops were in his glass, I moved against the wall, taking slow, careful breaths, not wanting anyone to hear me gasping for breath because my heart felt like it was in a vice that was squeezing tighter with each second.

I stepped toward Eris next, having to wait a precious few moments for her attention to get distracted enough for me to slip the extract in her glass.

I inched toward Ares next, but one of the humans rushed toward the center of the room, sending me stepping backward blindly.

My back hit a table, making the contents on the top wobble around.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

I rushed to the side, hiding in a corner, heart punching against my ribcage, bile rising up in my throat, sure I was found out.

But the gods, they were oblivious, already a little high on whatever golden liquid was in their cups.

They didn’t even notice.

But I needed to waste another moment to pull myself back together, to wait for my hands to stop trembling. I would spill half of the extract if I tried to pour it right then.

But as I stood there, cocooned in my shadow, I could feel myself starting to fade, to shake for an entirely different reason.

I needed to hurry the hell up.

I forced myself away from the wall and across the sprawling room.

Ares was lounged on a chaise in the corner, a woman—oh, gross—bobbing up and down on his lap.

Well, he couldn’t get more distracted than a blowjob, could he?

I averted my eyes from their activities and focused on his glass instead, the liquid mostly gone. I hoped the extract wouldn’t be too detectable without being watered down by… whatever was in his glass. Or that he swallowed too much before he noticed.

I was so relieved when I finished with Ares’s drink that it wasn’t until I was outside again that I realized something.

Someone was missing.

Oizys, who was, arguably, the worst of my siblings; she was the one who did the most diabolical damage to others—mental, emotional damage. She’d quite literally driven people insane.

Where was she?

I wondered if maybe I should go back inside, head upstairs, see if she was in one of the bedrooms.

But who was to say she was even at the estate at all? Maybe she was out looking for new victims.

And I could be wasting the elixir trying to chase down someone who may or may not even be around?

“Daemon?” I whispered as I stepped into the woods where I’d left him, my heart in my throat, but also somehow in his hands. “Daemon, it’s done, but… Daemon?”

With each crunch of leaves in the underbrush, though, I knew something was wrong. He wouldn’t just walk away.

We’d walked through Hell together. Literally.

“Daemon?” I called, my voice getting louder, a little hysterical, as I tore through the woods, looking for any sign of him.

Nothing.

No.

No, no, no.

What if… what if he was back in the cellar? If Oizys found him and was torturing him there again?

I didn’t stop to think.

I cloaked and ran.

The second the door opened, the smell of decay met my nose, making me retch and hold my breath as I forced myself to descend the stairs.

I knew there was a body down there. But I couldn’t let my hesitation over seeing it stop me from making sure Daemon wasn’t being held captive again.

The body was crumpled on the floor just past the stairs, the damage done to him unspeakable. I couldn’t help but think that the torture he’d endured was somehow worse than that created by the demons that had escaped through the Hellmouth.

But I forced my gaze away, seeking answers to the questions growing in my mind.

There was nothing to find, though.

Just the body.

Blood on the walls.

Flies.

I ran back up the steps, slamming my back against the brick of the home, breath coming in ragged, unsteady huffs.

My head spun.

My heart sank.

Where was he?

A sob bubbled up, and I had to press my lips together to keep it in.

Daemon was immortal.

Even if he was being hurt somewhere, he would survive. He’d already survived so much.

Or, I forced my mind to entertain—despite my heart cracking at the thought—if he had run off on me, I couldn’t let everything we’d already done—everything I’d done even before he came along—all be for nothing.

The gods had to be well and drugged by now.

The poppies were gone.

I had one shot at this.

Adrenaline surged, chasing away the tiredness in my muscles, in my bones.

I had to finish this.

With or without Daemon.

Sucking in a steadying breath, I stood up straight, shook the tension out of my shoulders, called my shadows, then moved back to the front door.

I listened for a moment, wanting to make sure there was no outrage, no accusations of drugging.

Instead, I heard nearly hysterical laughter.

Before, suddenly, the front door sprang open, and several of the girls I’d seen earlier came rushing out, eyes wild.

“What the fuck is wrong with them?” one of them asked.

“I don’t know,” another answered, all red hair and smudged eye makeup. “And I’m not sticking around to figure it out.”

Smart girl.

With that, they took off at a run.

Well, it seemed like the poppies were doing their job.

Steeling my nerves, I rushed inside. I didn’t waste time trying to see what the gods were doing.

It didn’t matter.

What mattered was finding their magic-worker before they all sobered up.

I flew up the steps, not even caring about the pound of my feet, knowing no one could see me in the darkened house.

I knew nothing about magic.

What I did know, though, was that strange… screaming sound that was like icepicks in my eardrums as I moved down the hallway.

The sound pierced into my brain when I finally came to a door.

My hand went to the knob, finding it unlocked, but I couldn’t seem to make myself move forward.

“Hello?” I called, worrying I might be screaming, since I couldn’t even hear myself over that high-pitched racket. “Hello? I’m not one of them. I’m… I’m trying to help you.”

There was one beat.

And then, silence.

The kind of silence that made my ears throb.

That was the magic falling.

The magic they were likely using to protect themselves from the gods.

I turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Nerves had my belly flip-flopping as I stepped inside.

“Thank y—“ I started, my voice faltering when I finally saw the person I was looking for.

She was young, maybe only nineteen or twenty. She was painfully thin, her bones poking out through her clothes, her cheekbones sharp. Her blonde hair hung in greasy strands around her face.

“Who are you?” she asked, voice a mix of suspicion and fury, but with a slight undercurrent of hope.

“My name is Nox,” I told her. “I’m here to get you out.”

“Why? What do you want from me?”

My heart ached at that.

So young. So accustomed to being used already.

I wanted so badly to tell her that I needed nothing from her. But I couldn’t lie.

“I want you to help me free Nemesis, so she can stop those assholes downstairs from hurting people.”

“Sh!” she hissed, eyes going huge, haunted.

I didn’t want to know what they’d done with her since they’d gotten their greedy little hands on her.

“It’s okay. They’re tripping out of their minds on Underworld poppy elixir. That’s the only way I got past them. But we have to move. I know you have no reason to, but I need you to trust me.”

Her gaze turned away, looking at herself in the mirror over the dresser, taking in herself for a moment.

“If it will make them pay, I’m in,” she said.

“Okay. Can you take my hand and move close? I, uh, have some powers too. It will make us invisible. Just until we get away from the house.”

With that, she took my hand.

We inched together through the house, silent, barely even breathing.

The second we were outside, we both just… ran.

For our lives.

Because we both knew that was what was at stake.

We didn’t stop.

Not until I literally couldn’t go anymore, my lungs on fire, my heartbeat slamming.

I felt a small bit of comfort that it wasn’t just my waning, draining powers when I looked over to see the witch standing with her hands on her knees, panting for breath.

“What’s your name?” I gasped out between breaths.

“Agatha. Aggy.”

“Aggy,” I said, taking slow, deep breaths. “How long have they had you?”

“I honestly don’t even know. It was… spring, I guess.”

Almost a year.

They’d had their hands on this girl for almost a year.

“You’ve kept that protection magic going for a year?”

“Why do you think I look like this?” she asked, waving down at herself.

So.

It wasn’t just my powers that came at a cost.

“If I was free, I could recharge. But without that, I had to just… waste away.”

“Wait… if that screaming sound was protection magic, then why was Nemesis’s prison screaming?”

“Because… because they were… hurting her. When she was trapped and couldn’t fight back.”

Oh.

So she was going to be good and pissed when we released her.

That was a strange kind of comfort.

“We need to free her,” I told Aggy. “And then I can get you a shower, food, a comfortable place to sleep. Then I can take you home.”

“I don’t have a home,” she said. “But I would love some food. They barely fed me. Wanted me weak, I guess.”

“Yeah. They’re bullies like that,” I agreed. “Okay. Let’s get to the cave.”

We walked then, both too tired to hurry.

As we neared the mouth, Aggy’s hand reached for mine, likely remembering the bears and knowing we needed to hide ourselves.

I reached for the shadows. And, for the first time, it felt like they hesitated, like they didn’t want to come.

Or, maybe, I simply didn’t have much power left to command them.

This is the last time, I whispered to my own mind, to my soul, to my powers.

I just had to do it one last time.

The shadows came, and we rushed ahead, both shivering at the coldness of the cave as we drew deeper.

This time, there was no screaming as Aggy dropped the protection spell.

“How do we get her out?” I asked as we rounded the corner toward her prison.

“I just… need to ground myself for a minute,” Aggy said, moving forward toward my sister.

As for me, I slid down the wall, every muscle shaking in exhaustion.

I watched Aggy standing there, head tilted to the sky, arms out wide, lips moving.

But my vision kept blanking out as I drifted off over and over.

It was the roar that snapped me awake again.

Then there she was.

Nemesis.

My sister.

Free.

And fucking enraged.

She screamed so hard the ground shook.

Then, without so much as a glance at the two of us who risked everything to free her, she was gone.

“Nox? Hey, Nox!” Aggy said, gently tapping my cheeks. “Come on. Don’t die on me.”

“I’m not dying,” I assured her, my voice weak. Though, honestly, I felt a bit like I was dying.

Maybe I was.

“You’re so pale. And cold,” Aggy said, hands chafing up and down my arms. “We have to get you somewhere warm.”

“I have a car. And a motel room. I just… I’m so tired.”

“I know,” she agreed. “And you’ve earned the right to sleep. You just… saved the world. But… but you need to get somewhere safe first, okay? Here, I’ll help you,” she offered, slipping under my arm and half-lifting me to my feet.

“We got this,” Aggy said, starting to half-carry me through the cave.

I was aware of her lips moving, of her voice chanting.

But I had no idea what she said, or what she was doing. Trying to lend me some power, maybe.

All I knew was pain, an ache that felt like it came from my marrow. And cold. God, I was so cold.

I was vaguely aware of leading her to the car, of asking if she was even old enough to know how to drive.

“The world is ending, and you’re worried about road rules?” she said as she hefted me into the passenger seat. “Where is the motel?” she asked.

I think I managed to point.

The rest, well, the rest was a blank.

Somehow, though, Aggy got us to the motel. She even managed to get me inside, to set me on the bed.

Where I fell into a sleep so deep it was damn near a coma.

When I woke, it was like a goddamn electrical current shot through my body, making everything inside me wake up.

“Well, that sure did the trick,” a feminine voice said. Unfamiliar, but there was a strange… comfort at the sound of it.

I sought the voice, finding a black-haired woman sitting at the edge of my bed.

A stranger.

Yet so, so familiar.

“Hello, my daughter.”

Nyx.