Chapter 4
Four
Ursula
I hit the street and marched ahead even though I wasn’t sure where I was going. If Silas did, he wasn’t saying, and if he expected me to ask him, he’d be waiting a long fucking time.
Was I being petty? Yes. Did I give a fuck? Nope.
How the hell were we going to do this? I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the male. How was I supposed to buddy up and be teammates?
The key vibrated in my hand, and wind whipped around us out of nowhere. A low whisper resonated through me, followed by a husky deranged laugh.
“You hear that?” Silas said, now at my side.
“Yes,” I said grudgingly. The key vibrated again, more violently. I uncurled my fingers, and a tiny light shot out from the end of it and zipped around the corner.
“I think we’re meant to follow,” Silas said.
“You think?” I muttered and jogged after it.
He didn’t answer, but the sound of his boots hitting the pavement behind me told me he was right on my tail.
I searched the darkened street ahead, and the tiny glowing orb zipped left, then right, then darted between two buildings.
We sprinted after it, and I slid my knife free as we chased it down the narrow space between Bertha’s Beads ’n’ Things and Central City Sports.
The light shot through and out the other side.
I glanced back at Silas, who was forced to turn sideways to fit those massive shoulders through the confined space.
When I reached the end of the building, I peered around the corner.
I had to assume the light was leading us to some kind of portal or door, one that would fit the key I still gripped, but making assumptions was a good way to get a person killed.
The light hovered as if waiting for us.
Cautiously, I eased out, Silas right behind me, until he rushed forward so he was half in front of me, sword drawn, all protective macho male.
I growled. “Back up—”
The orb burst open, and the small area back here was lit up so brightly it was blinding. I lifted my arm to shield my eyes. Silas cursed, throwing an arm out in front of me, and backed up. Shielding me.
“Is there something you’re not telling me?” I bit out. “Are your Spidey senses warning you that the orb’s about to blow?” Silas had heightened senses, so I’d be dumb to ignore them, even if he was pissing me off.
“No,” he said, without looking back.
“Then fucking move.” I shoved his arm out of my way as the light dimmed. What remained was a door made of white light. I stepped forward, and Silas grabbed my wrist, stopping me. I spun back and glared.
His silver eyes bored into me. “You sure about this?”
He didn’t need to say anything more. Walking through that door meant entering a tournament that many never returned from. Death would be one thing, but no one knew what happened to those who didn’t come home. A fate worse than death was a distinct possibility.
“I’m sure,” I said and pulled from his grasp.
My surety wasn’t just about my ego or some burning desire to win. This was about protecting my home, keeping Hell intact, and protecting Lucifer, even if he had pissed me off. If this tournament could ensure things continued as they were, then I’d happily play my part to make that happen.
I took another step, and he stopped me again. I spun with a snarl. “If you’re too chicken shit, then stay the hell here.”
He stared down at me with that level, calm expression he always wore, well, almost always.
That look on his handsome face projecting a whole lot of all-knowing, voice-of-reason crap just pissed me off more.
How was he so godsdamn calm all the time?
Nothing got to him. Not one fucking thing.
That emotionless, cool self-possession made me want to drive him to the edge, mess him up, piss him off, turn him on, anything to get him to lose his shit.
“If we do this, we’re going to have to trust each other. Do you think you can do that?” he said patiently.
I crossed my arms. “No.”
He waited, and when I said no more, he sighed. “That’s it? That’s all you’re going to say?”
“No, dickhead.”
His expression didn’t change, but his eyes narrowed slightly. “You know I wouldn’t allow any harm to come to you, Ursula.”
I didn’t know anything of the sort. “Whereas I would love nothing more than to cause you all kinds of harm.”
His Adam’s apple slid up and down his corded throat and a muscle jumped at the hinge of his jaw. “For this to work, you’ll need to trust me—”
“I only trust my sisters.” Well, except for Uma.
His cheeks darkened and that muscle did another jump. Well, look at that. How delicious. Was that real, bona fide frustration I was seeing? I hoped so.
“This tournament will test us in ways we aren’t prepared for, that no one can be prepared for. We go through that door with you still wanting to slit my throat, and we may as well hand that key back and walk away now.”
“Like I said, chicken shi—”
“Ursula.” He growled so low and deep that I felt it roll up from the soles of my feet and vibrate in my chest.
Oh yeah, I’d gotten to him. Nice. “Yes, Silas?”
“I’m not afraid, but I do want a fighting chance. And since angels are in this tournament, my senses are useless. I’ll feel nothing.”
He should be used to that.
“I need to rely on my teammate, but you still see me as the enemy,” he continued, his eyes going all intense.
“Enemies can’t fight on the same side, they can’t stand heel to heel against a mutual foe without worrying a knife will be buried in their backs.
They can’t look ahead for danger when it’s right there behind them as well. ”
I got what he was saying, but I wasn’t sure I could release all the anger I was carrying when it came to him. Doing so was too dangerous. Letting him get even a little closer could be detrimental to me in several ways. “Spit it out. What is it you actually want?”
He straightened. “A truce. Just while we take part in the tournament. You can hate me again when we walk back through that door, triumphant, but when we walk in, we need to be on the same team.”
He was right, of course, but it wouldn’t be easy to be this close to him, to fight beside him after what happened.
I couldn’t let myself be sucked back in.
I couldn’t allow myself to soften. I’d done it once with someone else, a very long time ago when I was too young and naive to know better, and the feeling of betrayal and loss had almost destroyed me.
That had been nothing to how I’d felt after ending things with Silas.
I’d never been as weak as I’d been then. Allowing Silas past my defenses, giving him the ability to hurt me, had been the wake-up call I needed.
A warrior couldn’t have weaknesses. I knew it, and I’d allowed myself to fall for him anyway.
I had plans, ambitions.
I had my sisters.
I didn’t need anything else getting in the way of that.
He held out his hand, sensing my capitulation. What choice did I have? If I wanted to win this thing, we’d have to find a way to work together. “Truce,” I forced out.
He took my hand. His was huge and warm and rough, and I barely suppressed a shiver.
Quickly pulling my hand from his, I stepped up to the glowing door made of light and slid the key into the lock.
As soon as I did, the door dissolved, melting away, and we were no longer standing behind Central City Sports.
No, we were standing on a huge field, the sun bright in the sky. I spun, watching as teams appeared out of nowhere, one after the other. Witches, shifters of different breeds, vampires, and, of course, angels.
Silas stiffened at my side when Nathaniel and another angel, one I’d met before named Eloa, appeared on the opposite side of the field. I hadn’t seen the female for a very long time, but I knew her well. She was as fucked up as her teammate.
“Of course they’d send Nathaniel, the prick,” I said under my breath.
The male was a twisted creep.
“He’s ruthless,” Silas said. “He’ll do anything to win.”
I rested my hand on my battle-axe, strapped to my thigh. “So will I.”
His silver gaze slid to me, and my heart did a humiliating flutter. I quickly stifled the weak, pathetic reaction with anger. My fingers tightened on the smooth wooden handle.
“You planning on using that axe?” he said to me.
“More than likely.”
“In the next few minutes?”
“Probably not.”
“You attack them now, we’re disqualified,” he said evenly. Always the voice of reason. “And I assure you, no one would love to maim that fucker more than me, but I’m thinking that’s maybe not a good idea,” he said, surprising me.
Good. If he hated that prick, he wouldn’t pull back when it came time to drop the hammer and end those fuck-sticks. “We can’t let them win,” I said. The way Lucifer wanted this, meant losing would be bad. I didn’t need to know the whys. I knew Lucifer too well to doubt it.
“Then we’ll beat them, but we’ll do it according to the rules.”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “Killjoy.”
His brow quirked.
“Always the rule-following geek boy, aren’t you?”
He smirked, and my heart did another leap. “If that were the case, I’d still have my wings. I also wouldn’t be here, now would I?”
Thankfully, my second humiliating reaction to the infuriating male was interrupted by a beam of light bursting from the sky.
Holy shit.
Something slid down it at speed, plummeting to the ground.
A male.