Chapter 19
Chapter
Nineteen
Sy
The chaos king had promised to return in an hour, but more than two hours had passed.
With nowhere else to go, Rowan lounged on the couch while I sprawled on top of him. A bowl of cherries sat on the coffee table so he could feed me while we chilled.
Bea had left to work on blood magic spells, and Cade was tasked with collecting vials of our blood for her. He’d leveled up her rank to allow her to summon anyone or even the whole house to assist her.
Cami and Rock departed as well, instead of staying to babysit us.
Rowan and I had planned to slip back to Barbie’s room to fuck as soon as the heirs were gone, but they were still here, lingering over food and drink, bartering and laughing. I had studied each of them extensively through Barbie’s eyes before our separation, and I knew they were not just one thing.
I liked how they were. They weren’t losers awaiting doom; they were top predators actively and competently working to prevent it. One quality I truly appreciated was their capacity to laugh in the face of adversity. If we were going out, we would do it with a bang.
My mate was momentarily kicked down, but he wouldn’t stay down for long.
Right now, everyone was still reeling from what had happened: the vortex hijacking us to the Underworld, Barbie and I returning separately, the heirs nulling the Brides Selection, and the devastating news of Ruin’s approaching army.
“Shouldn’t they be back by now?” Louis grunted, jealousy unmistakable in his pale blue eyes.
He’d thought he’d gotten Barbie, only to have her swept away from under his nose.
“How long are they going to fuck? This waiting ill suits us. We need to find a way to drag them back. It’s unfair for Killian to leave us all hanging. We need to get to the Red Room.”
“Maybe we don’t have to wait for them to return,” I said, spitting out a cherry stone. “We could just go in ourselves.”
“The problem is,” Cade said, massaging his temple, “Barbie is the only one who can open the Red Room.”
“Not the only one,” I said. “Whatever Barbie can do, I can do better.”
Rowan stilled beneath me, and the other heirs turned to stare.
Silas and Louis still had the hots for me, but they’d become more reserved since Rowan’s exile.
Stealing me from him now would be like kicking a man when he was down.
The heirs were ruthless, even morally gray, but they would not cross that line with one another.
I lifted my chin. “I am not competing with Barbie. She may be the only goddess on Earth, but I am the oldest magic. It is time I showed all of you what I can do so you’ll take me seriously.”
“Of course we take you seriously, Sy,” Silas said immediately. “Always.”
“Any fucker who doesn’t respect you will face my wrath!” Rowan promised.
I smiled at him and nodded at the shifter prince. “Good to know, man. For the record, I quit feeding on supernaturals a while ago. But when you were mean to Barbie after she moved into your House, I planned to eat you. If she hadn’t stopped me, you wouldn’t be here today as the alpha king.”
Silas stared at me, incredulous, then let out a short laugh.
“She wasn’t kidding, Silas,” Cade said, and Silas’s smile faded, his face paling slightly.
I twirled a finger in a circle. “I no longer need to feed, now that I am separate from Barbie.”
I could feel the changes in myself since the separation. My power was getting stronger every day, and I no longer needed to feed. The insatiable crave was gone.
“I was in the Red Room, watching the ancient gods through Barbie’s eyes,” I said. “They were a sorrowful sight. If you still want to meet them, I can get you inside.”
“We’re in,” Louis said, offering me his most charming, fang-free smile.
“Let’s go,” Cade said.
“I can’t wait to see the look on Killian’s face when he finds out we managed without him,” Silas added. “He may be my brother, but he’s an arrogant jerk who thinks the sun revolves around him.”
I saw his point, though it was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Rowan and I pushed off the sofa. It was good to have something to do, so we wouldn’t get fat.
We filed out of the penthouse. I led the group down the corridor, my hand in Rowan’s.
It felt good to be seen. I grinned, thinking of the beautiful life ahead of me, a life that was finally and completely my own.
Not even a looming war could take this feeling from me.
“Fair warning,” I said, glancing back at the heirs.
I remembered how much Barbie loved these little pep talks.
“The gods holed up in the Red Room have bad tempers. All gods are temperamental, but these two have had their minds broken by millennia of torment from Ruin. Play dumb if they speak in weird prophecies. Do not upset them, or it’ll end badly for everyone.
” My gaze zoomed in on the shifter king. “That means you, Silas. You got me?”
“What? Why the fuck am I being singled out?” Silas had the usual look of wanting to punch something. He probably mistook it for a badass look, and he mostly mimicked Killian.
“Because you have a gift for pissing off even the dead,” Louis said.
“You’re one to talk, bloodsucker.”
“Everyone, just follow my lead and be on your best behavior,” I said confidently and bared my fangs slightly. “Don’t touch anything. Now, hold your breath.”
“Why?” Louis asked. “My breath is fine. You can come and smell for yourself, Sy.”
“Back off, Louis,” Rowan growled. “Just hold your breath.”
“Why?” Silas challenged.
“Because my mate said so!” Rowan snapped.
“I have never tiptoed for anyone in my life,” Silas retorted. “And I am not about to start by holding my breath.”
The heirs were impossible. They always complained about Barbie being a handful, but now I felt sorry for my sister, so misunderstood by everyone.
I stopped before the red door like a tour guide presenting the world’s most unsettling attraction.
“Shit,” Cade muttered behind me.
Purple light spilled from the doorway, pooling at our feet like alien blood. It began to bubble, as if responding to my thoughts.
Rowan pulled me back, moving to shield me with his body.
“Your protectiveness is sweet but unnecessary,” I told him. “They can’t hurt me.” The only real threat to me was the God of Ruin, but I kept that to myself. There was no need to make him more paranoid.
Nevertheless, he raised a hand, ready to unleash his elemental magic.
The other heirs fell into battle stances as well.
Cade leveled his wand at the door. Silas had partially shifted, his forearms covered in fur and his jaw lengthened into a half-wolf, half-human form.
Every heir’s power had grown since forming the blood bond.
Louis bared his fangs and extended his claws, his air magic gathering around him.
“Here we come, Kansas!” I said and turned the handle.
The last time Barbie was here, the door had swung open before she even touched it. The ancient gods had been desperate to see her, whispering in her mind whenever she passed, trying to lure her inside.
This time, the door opened onto a deep darkness shrouded in mist. A chill crept up my spine. Rowan tensed, and the other heirs grew still.
“Well, princelings? Are you coming?” I purred the challenge.
In response, Louis and Silas charged past me into the gloom.
I stepped through the doorway with Rowan holding my hand and Cade close behind. The door clicked shut with an air of finality, and then the void swallowed us.
“Where the hell are we?” Silas demanded.
“In a frozen hell, Silas.” Louis snickered.
“Don’t announce my name to a possible hostile force, vampire!” Silas snapped. “Names hold power.”
The shifter usually got into a pissing match with Killian, whom he saw as his ultimate rival.
With Killian absent, his old friction with Louis flared up.
Shifters and vampires were natural enemies.
Without Cade and Rowan glueing the heirs together, the five of them would never have formed their brotherhood.
“And you just revealed what I am in return, wolf!” Louis retorted.
He usually called Silas a “dog” in their insults, but since Silas had specified his nature, Louis was returning the favor. He would not want the ancient gods to mistake Silas for a mere dog shifter. Precision was key.
I snickered. The power in this place was far greater than any of them; no deception would work here. But the heirs had a habit of lashing out when threatened, and everyone could feel the ancient, immense power pulsing around us.
“Cease your fire, children,” Cade called. “Remember where we are. Best behavior, as Sy said.”
Beyond the threshold, reality gave up. No walls, no ceiling, no floor.
Just an endless void that made my head spin as I searched for something solid to focus on.
Mist writhed through the space, darker than shadow, and occasional flashes of purple lightning cracked through the nothingness, illuminating shapes that even my mind refused to process.
The heirs were even more disoriented. I could see their minds struggling to make sense of this place and failing completely. I sympathized. While I’d been in the Red Room before through Barbie’s senses, experiencing it firsthand was entirely different.
The space, saturated with ancient power, assaulted every sense at once.
My feet found no purchase, yet I did not fall.
Air that wasn’t air filled my lungs. Staying here for even a day would drive anyone to irreversible insanity.
The swirling darkness was more than an absence of light; it was a sentient force, heavy with eons of anger, helplessness, and agony.
“I feel…sick,” Louis managed, his knees buckling. If one of the most powerful pureblooded vampires admitted that, this shit was more serious than I thought.
We needed to leave soon for the heirs’ mental health. We couldn’t afford any of them to be broken when we walked out.