Chapter One
Roux
“Hello, little thief. I’ve been waiting for you.”
My body froze in the darkness as that deep, smoky voice whispered against my skin like a physical caress. “You guys all heard that, right?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Thane said slowly.
Atticus stepped beside me, his unusual eyes glowing like two small nebulas in the darkness. “Who is he referring to as ‘little thief’?”
Recognition hit me with those words, but I couldn’t place why. The voice sounded familiar. I closed my eyes to try and chase the memory, but it was like trying to reach for the moon. It was so far out of reach that it was unattainable.
Rough hands wrapped around my face, and I opened my eyes to a pair of bright red orbs and alabaster skin. “Magnus?”
“You were whimpering a little,” he said, his handsome face close to mine. His dark brows were pulled low into a frown as his gaze roamed my face. “What is it?”
“I… I think I’ve been here before.” I pushed more death magic into my scythe—which was actually Thane’s scythe but in my care for now while he was under investigation for stealing souls—and stepped back from Magnus.
The runes carved into the handle of the scythe glowed brighter as more of my magic flowed through it.
A corridor built from large white marble blocks stretched further than I could see in either direction, disappearing into thick dense shadows that the light didn’t seem to be able to penetrate. I was staring into the maw of a void. An endless pool of nothingness just waiting to swallow us whole.
“What do you mean you’ve been here before?” Rafe growled.
His eyes were bright amber, reflecting the light in the darkness.
Normally, they were a vivid blue, but he must be calling his hound to the surface to use its night vision.
Not sure that would make any difference down here, to be honest. The darkness didn’t look…
normal. It looked too dark to be natural.
I stepped towards it, approaching it with caution. “I mean, I think I’ve been down here before.”
“Is this like when you were in the forest?” Rayne asked, reminding me of that familiar sensation I’d felt when we had approached the Mansion of Night.
The feeling of coming home.
“Yes,” I said, as I walked closer to the darkness.
Atticus placed his hand on my arm. “Be careful, kitten. We don’t know what or who this is.”
“And don’t forget, we still need to find Prometheus’ key,” Thane mentioned from behind me.
Ah, yes. That little caveat that the Keeper of the Vault chucked in as a price for his help in opening the front fucking door.
Prometheus bound Thane to him, so if we didn’t get the key, something bad would happen to the God of Death.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not since I’d just found the guy after he’d disappeared over some bullshit allegations that he was stealing souls for his own personal gains.
Those allegations were something we’d have to deal with when we got back, but right now, we had bigger fish to fry. And a Diadem to find.
I stared in both directions of the corridor, trying to decide which way to go.
Was there even any point in putting some effort into picking a direction? This place was likely a labyrinth worthy of some ancient Greek hero, and we’d probably get lost whichever way we went.
I looked behind me, something pulling me towards the darkness there. It seemed to move and shift like a living thing.
“Little thief…” the voice called again.
I swallowed, the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention as the voice whispered around us all again. “I guess we’re going that way.”
I stepped in the direction of the voice, my heart stuttering in my chest as I reached the edge of the dense shadows. My skin hummed with something. There was an anticipation building in my core, but I didn’t understand it. Did this have something to do with my time before becoming a Reaper?
I only had memories of my time here at G.R.I.M.
and nothing of the time when I was alive.
Thane had always said it was unusual. Even in death, memories are supposed to linger.
After waking up in the Underworld, I had no knowledge of who I was.
I awoke with no name, no memories, and no idea about who I’d been or how I’d died.
It was like I’d just blossomed into an existence as a fully grown adult Reaper.
I reached out to the shadows and watched in awe as my hand disappeared. It was cool against my skin and soft like a gentle breeze. “What is this?”
“Old magic,” Thane said as he came to take a closer look. “Ancient even.”
The shadows weaved between the gaps in my fingers, tickling the sensitive spots. “How can you tell?”
Thane pursed his lips and disappeared into thought for a moment. “It feels like mine. Like it’s created from the same source but older. I don’t like this, Roux.”
That sounded ominous. If the God of Death feared something, perhaps I should remove my hand from the strange, dense black shadow. But my gut was telling me that it wouldn’t hurt me, that it wasn’t a threat. It felt like it was learning the shape of my hand, like it was getting to know me.
“Come on. Let’s do what we need to, and then we can get out of here.” I just prayed we weren’t stuck in here for eternity, but, as I glanced at the men at my back, if I did get stuck down here, I was glad it would be with them.
I turned my attention back to the shadows, took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness.
Putting one foot in front of the other, I made my way carefully down the dark corridor.
The marble was cold beneath my fingers as I used it as a guide in the labyrinth.
I could sense the guys around me, our steps cautious.
There could be any number of traps down here and it baffled me that someone could have potentially done this before.
“Who in their right mind would ever venture down here?”
“Perhaps they had a good reason,” Atticus said, his voice just behind me.
“Maybe they weren’t in their right mind,” Magnus chimed in, his voice unsettlingly bright given the dark surroundings. Then again, the guy was a vampire and probably more comfortable in the dark than most.
The wisps of shadow were still wrapping themselves around me, weaving between my legs like a little cat. They were playful, and there was something familiar about it tugging at the edges of my memory. It was so damn frustrating. To be able to feel familiarity but not understand why. “Thane?”
“Yes?” he replied, making me jump. He was a lot closer to me than I thought he would be. His eyes were bright in the low light, like two pools of water caught in the sun.
“Do you think it’s worth speaking to Mnemosyne?”
His golden brows descended in a severe frown. “What for?”
I shrugged my shoulders, not that he could see, and sighed. “Isn’t she the root of memory? I just thought she might be able to, you know, help me remember.”
Thane brushed the backs of his fingers across my cheek. “I know you feel incomplete without your memories, Roux, but it doesn’t diminish who you are or how wonderful you are. You do know that, right?”
A tear blossomed at the corner of my eye.
Thane had never said anything like that before, and it affected me more than I expected it to.
Like he’d carved deep into my soul and figured out my most vulnerable secret.
“I don’t know that, but thank you. It’s just, I know I’m missing something more than just a memory. ”
“A person,” Thane said solemnly.
“Yes,” I murmured, that phantom grief gripping my throat. I didn’t understand where it came from, just that it was there. How could I not remember my name, but I could remember the harrowing pain of losing him? Whoever he was.
The others caught up with us in the darkness, and I pushed those thoughts away. I needed to be focused; there would be time enough to figure out if the Goddess of Memory might help me.
“Are we taking a breather already?” Rafe drawled as he stepped into the space behind me and wrapped his hand around my hip, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
I leaned into the comfort of his embrace, calming under his touch.
The twins always knew what I needed. A perk of being my Hellhounds.
They were telepathically linked to me so that they knew what I needed without me having to tell them.
It was supposed to be a protection tool so that they could intervene if I was ever in danger, but we knew our connection ran deeper than mere master and servant.
However, the love we felt for each other could never be anything more than touches and longing looks.
It was forbidden and against the law. I’d petitioned Hades to change it, but he wouldn’t.
I understood why the law was there, I did.
Hellhounds were there to protect their Reaper and the Underworld.
If they were in love with their Reaper, they’d have compromised judgement.
I’d seen it with the twins occasionally.
They’d question me over my decisions and sometimes they’d fight against my orders, so I got why the law was there; I just hated it because it kept me from them.
If I could give up being a Reaper, I would, but that was impossible.
It would be like asking a human to stop being a human.
“You okay there, kitten?” Atticus asked, and I blinked at him, not understanding what I was seeing.
Because I could see all of him. “How are you doing that?”
The shadows had pulled back from him, leaving a space between him and the darkness, and a little orb of light hovered above the palm of his hand.
“Oh, just a simple light spell. I have a little bit of witch running through me on my mother’s side.” Atticus made the orb glow brighter. “I can’t do much more than the basics, though.”
“Not that,” I huffed, but I’d circle back to the witch thing later. “How are you stopping the shadows from surrounding you?”
“Oh,” he replied with a soft laugh. “I don’t think they like me very much.”