Chapter 53
Fifty-Three
All the worlds should fear me. Now it’s Poly’s turn.
“You two ready?” Caspion reached for her and Mirceo, taking their hands to teleport them. Balery’s rolled bones had indicated that if they left now, they would arrive in the Plane of Lost Years on the night of the Cold Moon.
Mina gave Caspion a firm nod. “Ready.”
Mirceo answered, “I was born ready, sweetheart.”
Caspion was still shaking his head ruefully when they landed in Poly, just beyond the dunes bordering Adham’s valley.
As a sandstorm raged in the freezing night, Mirceo created a bank of mist to conceal them. He gazed around with disgust as they floated up one of the dunes. “Poly is a place you don’t have to try in order to knock .”
Every grain of these shifting sands reminded Mina of how formidable Adham would be in this dimension, and by all accounts, his power already brimmed.
Her first instinct had been to bring an army with her on tonight’s mission—her family had certainly wanted that—but too many people crowding Mina’s trap might put Adham at risk. Yet then, too few might put Mirceo at risk.
So she’d decided on this trio, and for once, her decisions were binding. She’d refused to tell anyone what she’d figured out until they’d each agreed that she would oversee Adham’s recovery.
Now she gazed at her brother’s barely healed neck. What a danger this was! She would have liked to spring her trap on a more advantageous battleground, but one of the components she needed now lived here. . . .
As they neared the top, Caspion said, “The storm will dwindle up there, and you’ll be able to see the stronghold. From that very spot, I watched hundreds of hunters attempt to claim the bounty on Harea. They all fell to his traps in gruesome ways.”
“What would make you two try for that job in the first place?” Would she ever have met Adham if they hadn’t?
“Yes, Mirceo”—Caspion raised his brows—“tell her what could possibly have moved us to such folly.”
Straightening his shoulders, Mirceo said, “Well. It’s like this . . . I wanted to show support for my mate’s line of work, and I was angling to spend more time with him to win him over with my irresistible wit and charm. So I took Harea’s bounty notice off the wall in a hunter’s den, thinking date night . I didn’t know that taking the notice meant I would be forced to capture the notorious King of Sand, or I’d be slain by other hunters.”
“Oh, Mirceo.” He wasn’t perfect, but Caspion was very patient with him. Mina told her brother-by-fate, “You must love him very much.”
Helpless grunt.
Mirceo grinned. “Did I mention my wit and charm? I could mention it again.”
The two were perfect for each other. Fate knew what she was doing. “Will you continue bounty hunting together?”
Mirceo shared a look with Caspion. “We got burned out.”
“I’m sorry. Ellie told me about all your rescue efforts.” They’d apprehended the Gaolers’ bounties one after another, planning to capture the demigods and force Mina’s release, but the Gaolers had used time manipulation to thwart their attempts.
“I decided to out myself on live TV, but somebody said he’d be right there beside me.” Mirceo hiked a thumb at Caspion. “This fucker—sorry, I mean?—”
She waved away the spicy language, surprising him.
“Anyway, this lout swore he’d follow me to the ends of the worlds, and all that romantic drivel.”
Caspion flashed his demon fangs in amusement.
“I figured you might pull exactly that stunt,” Mina said. “And I worried you might use Dorada’s ring.”
“It was our next play. But then Balery told us she thought she had a lead. So we held off.”
“You must have been furious to learn that Lothaire and Kristoff left without you.”
“They rode off without so much as a word to go riddle-solving and sundry bullshit, and they landed in the one place we’d fought to get to. That stung. But it sounds like you wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t.”
“True. And I wouldn’t be here without Adham.”
Mirceo rolled his gray eyes. “Say this trap of yours works. Say Silt’s not totally evil. That doesn’t mean he’s become a good man.”
“Brother, do you really want to go down that road?”
Even Caspion raised his brows at that. “Can people not change?”
Mirceo glowered. “I won’t tangle with both of you. There’s little sense to that. Let’s just say that Silt isn’t good enough for Mina.”
“Fate thinks he is.” Enti had been right; Mina wouldn’t settle for anything less than utter devotion. But sometimes a vampiress had to fight for it.
Mirceo exhaled. “He’s not your mate. When you finally find the one for you, you’ll understand how far off the mark you are about Silt.”
“ Adham. And let’s agree to disagree.” As they crested the dune, anticipation pricked her skin. Finally she would behold the structure he’d built with his own hands and sorcery. The sandstorm eased; below them lay a valley cradling a gigantic pyramid.
Caspion blew out a breath. “Whoa.”
“Whoa,” Mirceo and Mina echoed at the same time.
“Lot of changes here since the last time we saw it,” Caspion observed. “Of course, decades have passed in this realm.”
Mirceo said, “The defenses are all gone.” Instead of the multiple deadly traps Mina had heard about, the fortress was wide open, and revelers lined up for entry, an actual red carpet welcoming them in. Bowls of fire danced in the winds, and light spilled from the pyramid’s slot windows.
According to Caspion’s sources, this stronghold was under new management .
While Adham had been out searching, Enti had moved in and made his home into the Lore’s hottest den of fleshly delights. Exiling herself in Poly, the one place the Gaolers never went, she’d resumed her moniker of the Queen of Vice and had leaned all the way into it.
Just then, one of Adham’s scyllas thumped its purple tentacles against the pyramid. Answering that call, someone poured spirits out of a narrow window into the creature’s gaping maw. Its tentacles flailed with drunkenness.
When it vomited in the sand, Mina, Mirceo, and Caspion all chorused, “Whoa,” again. Its tentacles fell limp, and it sprawled like a wet mop.
“Can you imagine how Silt will feel when he sees this?” Mirceo asked with glee at the prospect. “His hallowed haunt with all its security, turned on its ear. That’ll stick in his craw.”
Ignoring him, she asked, “How did Enti get past his defenses in the first place?”
Caspion said, “I heard the Sandman’s concubines opened the doors wide for her.”
Mirceo cackled. “That had to smart.”
Mina pursed her lips and turned to Caspion. “Are you sure he’ll be here?”
“He probably already is.” The demon had put out the word through his network that Mirceo, renowned as a rake, was attending the rout of the century on the full moon tonight to celebrate his regeneration and his sister’s return.
Mina surveyed the crowd, seeking Adham. Many of the attendees wore masks, and not just Sorceri. He would be in disguise as well, wouldn’t want to spook a target like Mirceo who could just trace away. “Anonymous indulgence must be a draw.” She was one to talk from the cover of mist.
Mirceo and Caspion exchanged looks, had probably attended countless of these fests in their time.
“I’ll need eyes on the inside.” She checked her new sword and inhaled a steadying breath. “You two, remain up here on standby, in case I need you.” Keeping Mirceo and Caspion away from Adham was logical, decreasing the risk to all parties.
Except me.
Mirceo sputtered, “You really expect me to let you face him alone? I just got you back and barely survived losing you the first time.”
Caspion’s face was grave. “He suffered as you suffered, Mina.”
“I am so sorry for that,” she said with her whole heart. “But this is my mission.”
Mirceo rubbed his forehead. “I can’t do this.”
She clasped his shoulder. “Brother, if you believe that I am smart and capable, then you must let me go. You raised me with such care and did an amazing job, but I’m not a child anymore.”
Mirceo looked to Caspion to fix this, to help him make Mina fall into line once more. Whatever he saw on the demon’s face made him mutter, “Not you too.” Exhaling a breath, he said, “Fine. We’ll stay up here. Just don’t lose your mist again, okay?”
The mistake that had brought her to this exact point in her life. “I’m not planning on it.”
“Sister, what if you are wrong about this wastrel?”
She shrugged and smiled. “I’ve never been so right.”