Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
THANATOS
“What do you mean gone?” My bellow echoed off the walls of the throne room.
“That’s just it.” Grayson paced back and forth in front of me. “One moment she was with us, the next she was covered in purple smoke and then poof. Gone.”
“Where the hell did she go?” My chest knotted with worry. Though Anastasia was well-aware of the supernatural world of Evermore, she was still only human. Evermore could be a deadly, unforgivable place.
“I haven’t the foggiest.” Grayson sighed and stopped pacing. “But I can say it was a witch who took her.”
“A witch? Why would a witch take her?” Now it was my turn to start pacing the room. It made no sense. We hadn’t run afoul of any witches over the years. Her dealings were always with humans, and I’d gone unnoticed by the witches for centuries.
Grayson crossed his arms over his chest. “I can hardly say I know the thinking of witches, but I know some people who do.”
“We can call for them,” Piper offered.
“I’ve got it.” I let my powers flow out from my body, tapping into the lifelines that ran all over the world. It was easy to identify the souls I sought this way. Normally I followed the lines to collect souls that were incoming into the Underworld, but I would use the lines to my own ends now.
I snapped my fingers, yanking them from wherever they were to the here and now.
Zinnia and Tucker appeared first. They fell to the floor with Zinnia straddling his lap and his hands around her hips.
His auburn hair was a tousled mess, and Zinnia’s eyes were wide with surprise.
Flames erupted over his arms and Zinnia scrambled to a stand. “Grayson, what the hell?”
Grayson pointed toward me. “You might want to check with him on this one.”
I said nothing, continuing to focus on the others I wanted here.
Astrid and Beckett appeared next. Astrid threw her arms out and a wave of golden power shot through the room, knocking everyone but me off their feet and throwing them across the room.
Grayson twisted in midair, easily landing and grabbing hold of Piper before she collided with the wall.
Atlas too flew into the air but somehow managed to grab hold of Dice, placing her on her feet next to Piper.
Beckett was not as lucky. He soared across the room, flipping head over heels and heading right for the wall. Blue smoke poured from him and a portal opened on the wall right before he collided with it. Another blue oval-shaped portal opened right beside Astrid. “Damn, babe, that was a good one.”
“Sorryyyyy. I’m so sorryyy. I got startled.” Astrid pressed her hand over her mouth.
“That’s fair.” Beckett threw his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in closer to his side.
I tugged at another soul, forcing Tabi to come to us next.
She arrived in a whirl of flower petals and vines that swirled around her and bathed the room in the scent of roses.
When she stopped moving, the flowers fell to the floor around her and she looked up at the ceiling and around the throne room.
“You fixed this place up quickly. Good job, Gray.”
Grayson nodded at her. “Happy to have you back here, love.”
“Right, but why am I here again?” Tabi glanced around. “And how am I here again?”
“Thanatos has something to say to the lot of us.” Grayson nodded in my direction.
I didn’t have time to meet and greet each of them.
With another pull I yanked Serrina, Ashryn, and Logan into the room.
They all stood there holding cups of soup in their hands as if I’d caught them mid-meal.
They glanced at each other in confusion and then to me.
Next, I pulled the deadliest ones. Ophelia and Cross flashed into the room, and with lightning speed she fired a dagger right at my head.
It spun end over end right toward my eye.
I tilted my head to the side, and it soared past my face, embedding itself into the wall behind me.
She stomped her foot. “Next time I won’t miss.”
“There won’t be a next time,” I countered.
“Oh, Deathy, there’s always a next time.” She swished her hips in a little excited dance.
Cross shook his head. “Leave it to my soulmate to try and kill death.”
“You know my moto.” She pulled another dagger from thin air, tossing it up and down.
“Oh, I know, stabby-stab motherfucker.” Cross chuckled and moved to her side to face me. “You gonna tell us why we’re here?”
I held up a finger, silencing him, but when I tried to tug two more souls toward me, they were already closing in on us. I turned to face the double doors that led into the throne room just as Maze and Tilly walked right through the door. Grayson’s jaw dropped. “How did you get here?”
Maze paused, then shrugged. “We were needed.”
He sauntered into the room with everyone staring at him. Tilly held his hand tightly and gave a little chuckle. “You really should be used to this by now.”
Odin the one-eyed cat trotted into the room right behind them.
He dragged a long narrow white bag that was half ripped open.
A sub sandwich popped out of the top of it.
It was twice as long as the cat, but he wasn’t deterred.
He just kept on dragging it across the floor until he reached the dais.
He sat just beside it, licking his lips, about to dig in. Maze stood over him. “Share.”
The cat hissed and Astrid turned toward him. “Share. You’re getting too fat.”
Again the cat hissed at her, and Astrid flicked her finger, sending streams of golden magic in his direction.
The sandwich flew up into the air and split into pieces.
The smaller piece landed in front of Odin while the larger one dropped right into Maze’s hand.
Maze smirked down at the cat. “Told you you were getting pudgy.”
Odin hissed and pawed at the air between the two of them. I lifted my hand, and they all turned to face me. “Anastasia is missing. Find her.”
“Do we look like rent-a-witch?” Ophelia crossed her arms. “Because if we do, I’d like to know what you think our going rates should be? I’m not really interested in money per se, but like a get-out-of-hell-free card would be super useful right about now.”
“Just curious, but why can’t you find her the same way you found us?” Zinnia didn’t even stop to acknowledge what Ophelia said.
“I can’t feel her soul.” I hadn’t gone a single day since the first day we met not being able to feel Anastasia’s soul or knowing her exact location. It was unnerving, and as time went on, I found myself growing more alarmed. “Which means I can’t find her.”
“My guess is she’s being hidden by the witch who took her.” Grayson glanced toward the others. “A witch with purple smoke magic.”
Zinnia’s eyebrows shot up. “Smoke magic? Means she’s a darker cast of witches.”
Witches of the world fell into six casts: siphon, desires, earth, potions, death, and the occult. Sometimes it was easier to tell where they fell based on how their magic manifested. “Smoke could be occult, but purple . . . that could be death. So, which is it?”
“Hard to tell just from purple smoke.” Zinnia turned to Ophelia. “Any way you could think of that would tell us?”
Ophelia shrugged. “If I could get some of her blood, then yeah I could tell.”
“Got any of her blood by any chance?” Zinnia turned toward Grayson and Piper.
“Right, let me just pull blood from my back pocket. I know we’re vampires and all but . . . bit cliché, is it not?” His British accent was even thicker than it was a moment ago.
I paced in front of them. “I’ve kept track of Anastasia for centuries. You are the most powerful witches in the world. Tell me why I wouldn’t be able to find her with my own power?”
“I mean, it could be a boundary spell she’s stuck within.” Zinnia pursed her lips and strolled around the group as if deep in thought. “Or a curse of some kind.”
“My guess is a talisman.” Ophelia walked up the dais and sat down on the throne. She kicked her legs up on one armrest, shook her head, then turned and kicked them up on the other. She nodded and then slouched down into it. “I don’t like this one.”
“Then good thing it’s not bloody well yours,” Atlas snapped in her direction.
Ophelia waved his words away. “Might be someday. I haven’t really decided how I’m going to spend my afterlife: vampire, ghost, fury. . . I’m taking offers now though.”
“If it is a talisman, then how do we get past it?” I needed them to stay focused and help.
“You don’t.” Tabi shook her head, sending her dark braids floating around her face. “The only way to get past a talisman is to break it.”
“How do I break it?”
She shrugged. “The power of a god should be able to smash it. I can’t see that it would be able to keep you out. No single witch is that powerful. But they could hide her. A talisman to hide something or someone would be easier to make and also harder to circumvent from a distance.”
“So if we find it, we should be able to get past it?” I raised my eyebrows at them.
“If it is indeed a talisman that’s hiding her.” Zinnia continued her pacing. “It could be something else.”
“It’s a talisman.” Maze shoved the sandwich in his mouth. Shreds of lettuce fell onto the floor of the throne room. “Silver necklace, coin shaped talisman, skull at the center, old ass runes around it.”
Zinnia arched her eyebrows. “Want to give us her location too? Because that would be helpful.”
“Nope.” He took another bite and more lettuce fell to the floor.
I wanted to walk over there and beat the location out of him. “Why not?”
He pointed to his temple. His eyes flashed from milky-white back to neon-green. “The rules are clear. We don’t fuck with the rules because we don’t like the consequences.”
He took another bite, this time dropping a glob of mayo along with more lettuce to the floor.
Grayson shook his head. “Come on, mate.”
“What?” Maze spoke around the food in his mouth.
“A modicum of decorum if you will.” Atlas groaned and motioned to the floor. “Or perhaps even a plate.”
Piper’s oversized bear lumbered across the room, heading right for Maze. Everyone else backed away but Maze just stood there continuing to devour his sandwich. The bear stopped before him, dropped to the floor, and began licking up the mess falling from Maze.
Atlas groaned. “And now we’ve got oversized dogs slobbering over floors that are quite possibly as old as Thanatos.”
“Will you all focus!?” I bellowed. “How do we find my Anastasia? Can you use your pendulum to find her? A spell? Your own talisman? What can be done?”
Zinnia moved to my side and placed her hand on my arm. “A pendulum would only circle. If we try to find her, it won’t give us her location, not when she’s blocked like this with a talisman. We could try a location or summoning spell, but it will take time.”
“Is there anything that anyone can do right now?” I didn’t want to sit around and wait. I was a god of action, and I would take action.
Piper cleared her throat. “There is one way.”
Dice narrowed her eyes at Piper. “No.”
“You know it’d work.” Piper shrugged.
“There’s got to be another way.” Dice sliced her hand through the air. “Just not that way.”
“All I’m saying is it worked for me when I needed to find you and had no other way.”
Dice opened her mouth to argue but I held my hand up, stopping her. “Piper, what are you talking about?”
“You need a tracker.” She swallowed. “The best tracker there is.”
Grayson did a double take. “You can’t mean . . .”
“That’s who I mean.” She nodded. “He is the best.”
“I’m rarely offended by the words or actions of others, but I find myself to be just that in this case.” Atlas stepped up. “Nevertheless, I’ll hunt her down.”
“I’m assuming you’re not who they are speaking of?” I was growing weary of this conversation and the lack of action.
“They’re talking about my brother,” Ashryn answered in a deadpan voice. “And though that vampire is the best assassin in the world, no one rivals my brother in tracking.”
“My ego thanks you, elf.” Atlas nodded in her direction.
“Name?”
“Kylian.” Her voice remained in that flat, lifeless tone.
I closed my eyes and reached for the thread of his soul.
With a single yank I pulled him toward the throne room where we all stood.
Kylian appeared in the center of the room with a dagger in each hand.
Blood coated the daggers and dripped on the floor.
A line of it was sprayed across his chest and up the side of his face.
He sucked in heaving breaths as his burnt-orange magic flowed up his forearms.
His eyes darted toward Dice, then to me. “Any particular reason why I’m suddenly here and not where I’m supposed to be?”
“I summoned you here.”
He didn’t look at me. Instead his gaze went right to Dice. She took a small step back. “And here I was thinking you missed me.”
“I don’t miss things I don’t care about.” She put her hands on her hips.
He ran his knives over his dark jeans, brushing the blood off them. “Pity, you’re all I can think about.”
“I am not spank-bank material.” She wrinkled her nose at him.
“Oh, I beg to differ.” He gave a dark chuckle. “Even the vampire would agree with me on that one.”
Atlas snarled in his direction, and I stepped into the middle of them all. “I need you to find my love. Anastasia.”
He winked at Dice, then turned his attention back to me. “Odd that death can’t find someone.”
“I—”
“Never mind. I don’t care.” He shook his head. “I’ll find her.”
I didn’t know why this put me more at ease. He’d shown up covered in blood, yet knowing he would attempt to help made me somehow grow calmer. I turned toward Zinnia. “Excellent. In the meantime, perhaps you could also help?”
She gave me a nod. “We will do what we can.”
Kylian turned toward Atlas. “How about it, leech, you in for a hunt?”
“I’ve never opposed a good hunt.” He looked Kylian up and down. “Even if I’m assisted by a dog.”
The tension was so thick I could cut it with a knife, but I chose to ignore it and keep pushing forward. “Excellent. I will return shortly.”
“Where are you going?” Ophelia perked up from her spot on the throne.
“To ask the favor of all favors.”
She hopped up. “Cool, can I come?”
“NO!” everyone including myself bellowed at the same time.