Chapter 41
Chapter
Forty-One
DAHLIA
My mother’s bell-like giggle grated on my nerves before I even realized she’d trapped me in my own head.
“Can’t you just fuck off already?” I groused.
“Someone sounds like a poor loser.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, what should I sound like?”
“Grateful, for starters. I’ve allowed you to live. That’s not nothing.”
I sighed, shaking my head. “The last time we faced off, you were banished into oblivion. What’s it like to live in a delusion of your own making?”
She waved my statement away. “But not before I got what I needed. And is it considered delusion if you’re ultimately successful? Look around, Dahlia. This is my apocalypse.”
“It’s not over yet.”
That tinkling laughter filled my head again, and I gritted my teeth.
“Tell that to your mates. Oops, your pirate’s being eaten by a demon over there.
And poor Tor. He’s trapped in his own personal hell by Sloth.
Did you even know the Princes were here?
” She squealed in delight. “How could you? I trapped you almost immediately. It’s an absolute slaughter.
That cute little army you all thought you had amassed. Dropping. Like. Flies.”
She was holding out her skirt and doing a little jig. She could have been a princess in a children’s movie if not for the dead bodies littering the ground around her.
My mother was fucking demented. Which was par for the course, really, because I was hardly the poster child for mental health.
“We aren’t alone this time,” I managed.
She paused her dancing to glance over her shoulder at me.
“Weren’t you listening, sweetie? Neither are we.
Princes. Knights. Demons.” She started holding up fingers as she ticked off the various names.
“It’s only a matter of time, really. You could end this silliness now and just give me what I want.
Or if it makes you feel better, we can play out this whole stupid battle, and then I’ll just take it.
But that way you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that you tried your very best.” She said the last in a high-pitched baby voice.
I wanted to stab myself in the ears.
“What is it you want?” I forced out through a tight throat. I knew what she was showing me was an illusion, that my mates weren’t really being harmed, but what was happening in reality?
“Your power, silly goose. And I’ll get it one of two ways. Through your loyalty, or your life.”
I swallowed, taking a beat to make her think I was actually considering her asinine plan.
In reality, I was shoving my nails into the palm of my hand, hoping the pain might somehow pull me out of this.
I had no way of knowing whether what I did to my body in this place translated to my actual flesh, but I was hoping the intention behind the act might jump-start my autonomy one way or the other.
“Ugh. Fine. You always want to do things the hard way.”
After blinking a few times, my vision cleared, and I saw she wasn’t right in front of me after all. My mother stood about a hundred yards in the distance, her blonde curls blowing in the breeze. She waved like we were old friends being reunited and then blew me a kiss.
“Good to have you back, babydoll,” Hades murmured. “I was afraid I might have to come in there and find you.”
“What happened?” Caspian asked.
“She got into my mind. She wants my power.”
“What else is new?” Tor growled, his face a menacing glower.
“Well, she cannae have it.” Kai was still partially shifted into his dragon form, scales along his neck and wings folded back.
“I have to get to her if I’m going to kill her with this,” I said, pulling out my dagger.
“Aye. I can fly you to her.” Kai reached for me, but I stopped him.
“No, she’ll tear through your wings just like she did last time.”
“So we do it the old-fashioned way,” Cas said, taking a few test swings with his cutlass.
The idea of any of my mates fighting her again after what happened last time had me ready to vomit. I didn’t want to risk any of them. My uncertainty must have been written on my face, because Hades cupped my cheek to claim my focus.
“Raise your army, babydoll. Let them do the dirty work for you.”
I nodded, resolute in the plan as soon as he said it.
“There are a lot of dead guys on this land, babe,” Kiki said as she popped into existence from wherever she’d been. “You’ll have plenty to play with.”
Concentrating on the flicker of souls, I called them to me.
As soon as I felt them respond to the demand, I wove in an order for them to find new bodies to animate.
It was a heartbeat, or maybe two, before the first corpse got to its feet.
But then, one by one, they rose, until hundreds were at my command.
I pushed them forward, following behind in the path they carved out for me.
We hadn’t gotten far, maybe a dozen yards or so, before my mother tipped her head back in an obvious laugh. Then she made a big show of clapping before her own army of the dead appeared. I could practically hear her say, “See? I can do that too.”
Fuck.
The zombies clashed in a terrible show of torn flesh, gore, and violence, but with each of hers that fell, three more rose in its place.
Beyond the armies of the dead, the fights between our troops and the demons continued to rage.
We weren’t the only ones organized. There were clear leaders among the enemy’s ranks, and I wondered if these were the Princes we’d heard so much about.
I saw Sunday facing off with War in the distance, Rosie notching an arrow, and Merri’s red hair flashed in my periphery. I needed to get to Death so I could do my part.
“This isn’t going to work. She can do everything I can do. I won’t be able to get close enough,” I gritted out.
“I’ve got you, D. I have a score to settle too. Give me two shakes, and I’ll nail this bitch down for you,” Keeks said in my ear.
“Kiki, wait!” I called, but as I watched, she materialized behind my mother.
She stepped into Death’s body, the jolt visible even from a distance. The second she did, Death’s army also froze. I’m not sure what I’d been expecting, but Kiki possessing my mother’s body was absolutely not it. I had no idea how she was pulling it off, or how long it would last.
The distance between my mother and me suddenly felt impossibly far. I was no runner.
Kai solved that problem by scooping me into his arms. “Hold on, gem.”
Before the words could fully register, we were airborne. I had just enough time to clock Hades pulling his shadows back into his body, Tor wiping blood from his face, and Cas cleaning his blade before Kai deposited me in front of my mother’s form.
“Hurry it up, babes. It’s rough in here, and I can’t hold her for long,” Kiki said, her voice coming from my mother’s mouth.
I raised the dagger, rushing forward with my heart hammering in my ears. As soon as the point of the blade made contact with her chest, Kiki exited the body, and my mother’s eyes burned with hatred.
“You little—”
She never got to finish her sentence because I drove the weapon as deep into her heart as possible. Her eyes widened, then the life faded from them as she fell.
Kai was right there, his arms already tight around my body. “Well done, lass. You did it.”
I laughed. “I fucking did.”
“You were amazing!” Kiki shouted, rushing to me.
“Are you kidding? You were.”
“I was, wasn’t I?” she asked, doing a fake hair toss. “Couldn’t let that bitch beat us a second time. A girl has to have some pride, you know?”
“Where did you learn to do that?”
“Asshole taught me. I’ve been working on it for a while now. Never know when it’ll come in handy.”
The flood of endorphins from our win was still riding high, and there was no controlling the smile stretching across my face. I spun in a slow circle, noting that Sunday and Rosie had also been successful, which just left . . .
Oh shit.