Chapter 25 Let’s Go Find a Monster
LET’S GO FIND A MONSTER
Acacius
Marina stepped back and assessed his appearance, her lips pursed tightly, as if she were resisting a smile.
“What?” Acacius ran a hand through his short hair with a sly grin. “Brunettes your thing, Rina? Or is it the cut? Perhaps the fact that I am about a foot below my usual height? I wouldn’t mind if you stepped on me, just a little.”
A rose tint shaded her cheeks as she rolled her bottom lip out and caught it between her teeth. “You are my thing.”
Acacius’s heart fluttered, and his grin broadened. “Are you… flirting with me?”
She ignored him and spun to browse through the endless rows of earrings on her vanity.
After ripping her skirt, she needed a replacement of clothes.
They’d teleported to her home in Tenebris where time had slipped away from them again.
A quick bath turned into another sensual round of rough kisses and greedy hands.
Needless to say, the list of locations they’d slept together was quickly growing.
She worked in a pair of black tourmaline earrings as her long hair crawled up her shoulders, their ends meeting her jawline.
“What’s your thing?” She tilted her head, looking at him through the mirror.
“Blondes?” The black of her hair paled to the shade of buttercream.
“Redheads?” The blonde crisped to the color of a ripe persimmon.
Freckles dotted across the bridge of her nose, and her dark gaze altered to cornflower blue.
Acacius slipped his arms around her waist from behind, inhaling her vanilla and amber fragrance. “You’re my thing.”
She rested her waist against his chest, watching him in the mirror. “Are you flirting with me?” She smiled.
“Always.” He brushed her auburn hair away from her neck and caught her dangling earring between his lips and lightly tugged. “Though we may have to try out some of these colors later.”
Inhaling a breath through her nose, she spun in his grasp. “We have to go, Lord Acacius.” She reached up and pecked him on the nose before leaving his arms.
His stomach fluttered at her playfulness and small dose of affection.
He smiled like a fool, reaching for her. “Do that again.”
She gave a low, velvety laugh as she pranced backward out of the bathroom. “Let’s go find us a monster.”
“One of my Heralds managed to capture it.” Acacius walked beside her, curling his lip at the slop in the mortal alleyway—metal dumpsters overflowing with garbage, filling the air with a putrid stench.
Dirty clumps of snow piled in the corners. A chill bit in the air. Faraway sirens echoed in between the city buildings. A lone bird drifted above, its sheen glistening against the monochrome.
Marina’s heels clicked on the cement as she strolled. “Did you get a look at it through them?”
Acacius glanced over at her, the colorful lights casting neon hues over her profile. “Yes. The Herald is using my divine power to keep it subdued.”
From what he saw, the creature was strikingly similar to his own, and yet, it did not belong to him. Perhaps, for the first time in existence, there was another deity born of his lineage. Although, if that was the case, he was disappointed by their lack of originality.
Looking through the eyes of his Herald was like watching a scene out of a slurring lens. He needed to lay eyes on the creature himself to be certain.
Acacius stopped, doing a double take; rats the size of miniature dogs nibbled on a frosted pizza box.
Marina paused and turned to him. “What are you doing?”
Acacius shuddered and continued down the alleyway. “Rats,” he muttered.
She huffed out a laugh, striding alongside him. “You thrive in Chaos and Ruin, but mere rodents unnerve you?”
He reached over and lightly tugged on the ends of her jaw-length blonde hair. “My habits may not be as clean and neat as my older brother’s are, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy the company of vulgar, pestilent beasts.”
She rolled her eyes, amused.
They entered the blanket of shadows at the end of the alleyway. Whatever the creature was, he could feel its aura crawling up his ankles like a grim fog. They were close.
Marina swiped her hand, and the density thinned. A steep set of stairs greeted them, heading below ground.
“This looks ominous,” she mumbled.
Acacius let out a sharp sigh, internally cursing his creature for its choice of hiding spot. While he typically thrived in new, untamed situations, this one twisted his stomach in agitation. Perhaps it was because he was not alone.
He looked at Marina. “Ready?”
She nodded firmly and went to take the stairs.
A swift protectiveness rose in him, and he cut in front of her, proceeding first.
The stairway stretched on, its walls narrowing as they sank further into the throat of its abyss. Their footfalls clicked against the stone. A musty stench of mildew itched Acacius’s nose.
He stepped down into a small foyer. It held three separate doors, all warped frames and rusted metal. They looked to be old businesses, long abandoned.
A strained set of growls cried out from the other side of the door to their left.
Flashes of sight poured into his mind from his Herald as it watched the creature’s poor attempt to fight the chains of his divine power.
Acacius entered through the frail door with Marina close behind him.
The rotted wood under Acacius’s feet creaked. Empty metal shelves lined the concrete walls of the room. A single lightbulb dangled from the rafter, emitting a faint luminescence—just enough for him to make out the panting creature sprawled out on the floor.
His Herald stood over it, palm facing down, a transparent, indigo stream emanating from the creature’s cast. Thin, ethereal shackles kept the fake Daemon in place as it flailed and fought the snare. It wailed in a shrill, piercing cadence.
“How long has it been this way?” Marina asked.
“Hours.” Acacius kneeled beside it, scrutinizing its features: the monstrous, bony mask, split down the middle; the ribbed horns; the fur lining its shoulders; its six angular limbs; the blackened ends of its claws.
It convulsed and jerked as the Herald tightened its hold around the monster, the five holes of its mask aimed directly at them in a desperate plea.
Marina was right. It resembled his Daemon, down to every small, exquisite detail—except the noise that it made. A falsehood without the percussive chattering.
“Well?” Marina kneeled beside him, eyeing the monster.
It was real, but it also wasn’t, an eerily uncanny imitation.
Acacius stuck his hand through the barrier and pressed his thumb forcefully against the middle of the creature’s skull. He injected waves of his divine power into it. Tendrils snaked through its veins, reaching for its bones.
A guttural shriek rang through the room.
Marina winced and covered her ears.
Acacius applied more pressure, his heart thundering in his throat.
He analyzed the feel of its power, turning over the foreign energy like a bristly texture between his fingers. He could confirm that the monster had not been birthed from another deity in his lineage; as a sire to all below him, he would’ve recognized the feel of its Chaos.
Acacius pumped more of his divine power into the being, satisfaction brimming in his chest to see pieces of its skeletal face fracturing at the edges.
More, his Ruin whispered. Until it breaks.
The creature’s body bloated and then burst, crumbling like powder. Its ashy remains puffed up in a mushroom cloud and floated down like the snow outside.
His stomach congealed.
What the fuck?
Acacius glared, his pulse beating furiously through his skull.
He had no explanation for it. The beast was crafted by divine power, but not by a deity like him. Though, it looked exactly like his own Daemon. And yet, slivers of the faintest traces of magic lingered in its skin. Something that, in his long catalog of life, he had never come across.
“I don’t like the look you’re making,” Marina said as she studied the side of him, her worry filling the space between them. “You have no idea what it is, do you?”
He squeezed his hand into a fist, lifting his chin to look over at her. “None at all.” Rage bristled in his blood. Some foolish soul had the audacity to impersonate his Daemon. “But I can assure you that I am going to find out.”
The urge for Chaos tingled in his limbs. The sensation traveled like a drug through his system, and his jaws set to resist its temptation. This situation involved Marina. She had a goal, and if he raised hell now, he could ruin it for her.
The Herald materialized across the room in a sudden rush, alerting Acacius of the footfalls thudding down the steps.
Five individuals.
He whipped his head toward Marina. “We have—”
She was up on her feet, sending ribbons of her Night across the room to rip his Herald away from the door.
She disappeared, and he heard her fabricate on the other side of the door.
Fuck.
Acacius ripped up and followed.
He appeared in the foyer. Only this time, it wasn’t cloaked in shadow.
He glared into the bright lights beaming down at them. Lustrous orbs levitated in the palms of the witches’ hands.
The Blood Heretics.
It was an ambush.
Marina stood beside him with her arms up in surrender.
“Do not fight back, Acacius,” she whispered, her tone calm, expression calculated.
Fucking hell.
He ground his jaws, gripping at the tether to his Herald waiting to be pulled.
“We can explain everything, Ronin.” Marina stared past their glowing spheres.
Acacius’s stomach clenched at the Himura witch’s name.
“He’s not the one behind the monsters,” she continued. “Please, let me explain the situation.”
Disdain coated his mouth.
He swallowed, focusing on Marina in his periphery. She maintained her composure, but he could sense her panic from the speed of her words.
Being caught with him, in Hollow City, while monsters resembling his own stalked the streets—it was suspicious. Ronin probably assumed the worst: that she was working with Acacius to end the child’s future reign.
A set of unhurried footfalls scuffed the concrete steps.
The mystic orbs parted down the center, and the silhouette of a man emerged from them. The blinding rays glowed in the backdrop, obscuring his face.
A spiked vine shot through the shadow like a viper, wrapping tightly around Acacius’s shin. Pain rippled up his thigh and into his stomach. His mouth formed a tight line to hold in his grunt.
Marina gasped lightly.
He looked down at the briar cutting into his leg like barbed wire. Tingles prickled up his knee, the nerves already numbing under his skin.
Paralysis.
He balanced his weight on one foot. As old as he was, it was going to take a decent amount of Ronin’s blood to bring him down.
Fury roared in the thick beat of blood in his ears. He clenched his fists harder at his sides, banishing the impulse to rip this motherfucker’s head off his shoulders.
“You must be Acacius.” The witch stepped up into the High God’s space, tilting his head down at him, stupidly unafraid. With the glamor that Acacius wore, the witch sat about a foot above him.
Acacius’s nostrils flared, clinging to Marina’s request for him not to fight back.
He didn’t want to make things harder for her.
She cared for Ash, and it was obvious that she didn’t want to disrupt the peace made between her and Naia.
Which, unfortunately, meant sustaining the peace between her and Naia’s infuriating organization.
Acacius flashed Ronin a tense smile. “You’ve got me.”
In response to his cheekiness, Ronin’s ruby brambles twisted deeper into his leg. Waves of pain throbbed to his bone, stealing the breath from his lungs. He gritted his teeth.
“Seems we need to have a little chat,” Ronin said to him before shifting his body toward Marina, his intense disapproval burning into her. “I’ll give you a chance to explain, but if you try any bullshit, your second chance is over, Marina.”
“I understand.” The muscles in her jaws flexed as she gave a stiff nod. “Just hear us out.”
There was a plea in her voice he’d never heard before. A bravery and vulnerability that reminded him of Vale.
She’d come such a long way from the young goddess, confused and angry and bottling it all up as she watched Evander’s punishment; a goddess who relied on malice to carve her way. She was becoming who she wished to be.
And no matter how much his tendencies wept to tear into the Himura before him, he would keep his mouth shut, obey the fucking witch, and do whatever she asked of him.
He would not take this moment from her.