Chapter Thirty-Five
Thirty-Five
I’m standing in a graveyard watching a guy I just made out with in this very spot bowing to Hades, lord of darkness, whom I accidentally resurrected.
I may have made a mistake.
Credence—no, Hades—turns to me, a wide grin on her face.
“And is this our little necromancer?” she asks.
Something about the softness of her voice disturbs me. She takes a step and stumbles. Rook catches her arm like he just did to me minutes ago. Hades shrugs him off and straightens, squaring her shoulders.
“This body is so different,” she says, running her hands over her curves. “It will take some getting used to, but I like it.”
She takes a step in my direction, and I’m suddenly snapped back into reality. I have to get out of here. Now.
But not without the others.
I scramble back to where Tolliver lies in the grass.
“Wake up,” I beg, pulling the gag from his mouth and slapping my hands to the side of his face. “Wake up!”
I expect Hades to continue her slow approach, but instead, Rook is coming my way much, much faster.
“Wake up, damn you, Tollie!” I start untying his wrists. “Wake up!”
If he would just wake up, he could bring the others back from the Afterlife. It would all be fine. We would all be fine.
“Tolliver Torio Takao, you will wake up this instant!” I shout, punching him in the stomach.
He groans, and his eyes flutter, and I think he’s about to wake up, but then Rook is on me. He pulls both my arms behind my back, dragging me away from Tolliver.
“WAKE UP!” I shout at him, my voice nothing but tatters. “WAKE UP! TOLLIVER!”
I kick my legs, trying to make contact with a shin, or better yet, the groin, but Rook knows what he’s doing. His hold on me is too strong, and he anticipates my every attack. Every time we’ve fought, he’s just been humoring me.
He throws me down before Hades, my knees hitting the dirt so recently overturned by her resurrection. I push myself up to run, but Rook is already there, standing in my way. He grabs my arm and pulls me to him.
“Fighting is useless,” he says, and I don’t recognize his voice. “Don’t waste your energy.”
I stare into his eyes. They’re the same deep gray as they were moments before, but I don’t see any of the Rook I knew in them.
“Bastard,” I say, then spit in his face.
I brace myself for retaliation, but he just wipes his free hand down his cheek and turns me to face Hades.
“I like your spirit,” Hades says conversationally. “And credit where credit is due. You did something no one has accomplished in over three thousand years.” She claps slowly. “Brava, my dear. Well done.”
“I thought you were his sister,” I say stupidly.
“Of course you did, sweetie,” Hades replies. “That’s the whole reason Rook’s plan worked. If he had told you he wanted you to resurrect the Hades, you would have run off with your little tail between your legs. Or worse, you would have worked with the Titans and lost anyway.”
I’m weighing my options and coming up empty. Running will do me no good. Fighting will just get my ass kicked. My only real hope is that Tolliver wakes up or Poppy comes back. Neither of which seems very likely.
“Do you want to know how I met Rook here?” she asks as she starts to pace, practicing her long, purposeful stride. “It was ages ago. Literally ages. Bronze Age? Heroic Age? I can’t keep track of years anymore. It was before I went into exile.”
She stretches her arms out, rolling her wrists.
“Mmm,” she hums to herself. “It’s good to be back in a body again. Anyway, what was I saying? Ah yes, Rook was…nobody, really. What did you go by back then, sweetie?”
Rook mumbles something.
“What was that? Speak up, darling.”
“I don’t remember,” Rook says gruffly.
Hades lifts her palms. “Well, that goes to show how long ago it was. Of course, at that time, I was the Titan. None of this syndicate business like you have now. It was me and all my little god friends and…” She takes a deep sigh.
“Persephone,” I breathe.
Hades closes her eyes as though she’s holding back her reaction. “Yes, dear Persephone. We really were in love, you know, and that makes the betrayal that much more devastating. I tried to talk it out with her, but she didn’t have my vision.
“You see, I knew that it was only a matter of time before we were all at each other’s throats, and I wanted to guarantee that Persephone and I could live long, happy lives. So when any of our little friends got too powerful, I made sure to—” She shrugs. “—remove them.”
“You killed them,” I say flatly.
She nods.
“But you can’t kill a Titan,” I argue. “They’re immortal.”
“Functionally immortal,” Hades corrects. “They are, in fact, so very killable.”
I narrow my eyes. “Good to know.”
“Ah, there’s finally a spark.” Hades sighs, her eyes alight. “Those who are left may tell you I was the only one with an army, but I wasn’t. They all dabbled. It’s just I had the most loyal servants, like Rook here.” She turns to him. “Why don’t you show her your true self, darling?”
He doesn’t budge, his expression blank.
“Well, go on,” she says. “We don’t have all night.”
Rook lets me go, and I’m too shocked to run. His eyes glaze over. For a moment, the air in front of him distorts, like a heat wave wafting off asphalt after a summer rain.
Then his edges sharpen again, and gone are his gray eyes. In their place are pits of darkness. Curved horns have sprouted from his head. Black veins run the length of his neck and forearms.
“Demon,” I whisper.
I shake my head, willing it to be untrue, but the evidence stands before me. Demons are hellhounds. And hellhounds are shape-shifters. What had my captor said? That all demons were beholden to a Titan?
“Rook…” I say, voice begging for it not to be true, but I know it’s useless.
He shape-shifted into human form and conned us. Conned me. All in the name of serving his Titan. He was never working for the Cult of Hades. He is the Cult of Hades.
“Did you really think,” Rook says, his voice resonant with demonic distortion, “that you just happened upon someone who was grieving a sibling, who wanted the same thing you did, who saw you like you wanted to be seen? Were you really that naive?”
He expects me to crumble, but he truly doesn’t know me if he thinks I’ll shatter just because he hurt my feelings.
As if I have those.
“One day,” I say, teeth gritted, staring in his fathomless eyes, “I’m going to destroy you.”
A corner of his mouth twitches. “Looking forward to it.”
“Now, now, children,” Hades says, smiling giddily. “Let’s not fight.”
“Oh, this isn’t fighting,” I say. “You’ll know when I’m fighting.” I let my eyes linger on Rook for a moment before turning back to Hades. “So what do you want?”
She blinks, confused. “What do I want?”
“Why are you here?”
“I was in hell,” she says, as though speaking to a small child. “Of course I would want to escape. I was kept there for millennia.”
I scoff. “For millennia, your little cult couldn’t figure out how to resurrect you, and it took me and my crew less than a month.”
Hades’s smile turns pitying. “There is so much you don’t understand. So much no one told you. Because they didn’t trust you. They didn’t see how intelligent and talented you are. It’s such a shame your potential has been wasted.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Is this the part where you ask me to join you?”
“I’m not asking.” She laughs softly to herself. “I’m going to raise an army, little necromancer. Or resurrect an army, I should say. And if you do that for me, you and your friends get to live.”
I can’t help it—my eyes flick to Rook, who stands tall in full demon regalia in the graveyard. I always saw my marks as weak and gullible. Pitiable. In some ways, deserving of their fate.
Turns out, I’m just like them.
“Think about it,” Hades says. “I’ll give you three midnights, and then I’ll come for you myself.”
The weight of everything hits me. Whatever happens next, it’s because of me. I brought Hades back. Whether I help her or not, it’s a sunk cost. The damage is already done, and I could protect Tolliver and the others while I’m at it.
But I know a con when I see one. At least, I thought I did. At any rate, I do know this: I can’t trust anyone. Especially the god of the underworld.
“I don’t need time to think,” I say. “I’m not going to help you with your zombie army or whatever. I’m good, thanks.”
She huffs through her nose, pressing her lips together. “Then you are of no use to me.”
Quick as lighting, Hades flicks her wrist, and a huge forklike thing appears in her hand, crackling with energy.
I move to run, but too late, I realize that Hades is going to skewer me like I’m a…thing you skewer. I don’t have time to move or think, just stare at her stupidly as the weapon comes toward me.
And is knocked out of the way with a loud clang.
My heart jolts. Between me and Hades stands Tolliver, grave shovel in hand, dark strands of hair falling to his shoulders. Hades brings her weapon directly down on him. He blocks with his shovel and pushes her away.
“Run,” he says.
So I run.
Before you judge me, I am absolutely not leaving him to fight Hades on his own, but I’ve got nothing to fight with, and there are more shovels back by the others.
I get a handful of strides, before Rook is somehow standing in front of me. I didn’t even see him move.
“I don’t want to fight you, Elle,” he says.
I crack my knuckles. “Oh, but I really want to fight you.”
I burst forward, aiming a kick to his knee. He dances out of the way. My following jab lands but barely, my knuckles grazing his cheek. I try an uppercut to his stomach, but he grabs my fist before it can make contact, and I’m spun around faster than I can process what’s happened.
His arms come around me, my back to his chest.
“You’re going to get hurt,” he hisses in my ear.
My arms are pinned to my sides, his darkened claws clasped in front of me.
“Like you care,” I snap.
“Despite Hades’s rash reaction, you’re still valuable to us.”
I scowl. “You can get someone else to raise your undead army.”
“If you keep fighting me, this won’t end well for you.” His voice is breathy, strained.
“That’s fine. As long as I take you down with me.”
I drop my weight to free my elbows. Then strike back at his groin. It takes a few tries, but as soon as I make contact, he doubles over, and I bring my head back into his nose.
It hurts like a bitch, but his arms loosen, and I scramble forward, scooping up some grave dirt and flinging it into his eyes.
He recoils, and I pounce with a series of blows, only a couple making contact. Damn, he’s fast.
I hear movement behind me and turn to find CJ helping Ezra up. Finally. Tolliver must have turned off CJ’s Juliet supply before he attacked, and then CJ summoned Ezra.
The look back costs me, though. Rook plows into me, knocking me to the ground.
“Are you kidding me?” Ezra yells, just before I hear the sound of retching.
“CJ!” Tolliver yells, and relief floods through me that he’s still alive to yell.
I know, I know, I need to focus on my own fight.
But I’m not stupid, even though falling for Rook’s con may make it seem so.
I can’t win against Rook. He’s faster, stronger, and probably didn’t learn his fighting skills from a series of TikToks.
But even as his weight pins me to the ground, I know we’ve already won.
I have one free hand, and I use it to reach into Rook’s pocket to grab the emergency mask Tolliver makes us keep on us at all times. My fingers first land on paper, but then I find it. The paper comes with it, so I shove it in my pocket.
CJ yells, “Mask up!”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see them launch a flask into the air.
The moment Rook realizes what’s happening, he releases me. I scramble back, shoving the mask on my face. It suctions just as the flask hits the top of a gravestone and shatters.
A plume of blues and greens and purples hits the air, expanding like a mushroom cloud. I shove Rook the rest of the way off me, scrabbling for purchase to push myself up. I breathe deeply, watching the Juliet expand.
Out of the fog, Ezra and CJ appear, breathing hard, masks secured to their faces. Hades has disappeared somewhere beneath the cloud of Juliet, but the end of her two-pronged spear appears above it. I don’t see Tolliver.
“Tollie?” I call, voice muffled back the mask.
“Uh, over here.”
CJ, Ezra, and I run toward his voice and find him on the ground, torso wedged between the two prongs of Hades’s weapon.
There are two shallow wounds, one on either side of his rib cage, but he’s otherwise unharmed. CJ grabs the end of the weapon, yanking it out of the dirt. Tolliver breathes hard, hand brushing his wounds as he pushes himself up.
“Dude, I hope these scar. How cool would it be to tell people they’re from Hades’s bident?”
“Hades’s what now?” Ezra asks. “Hades, like Hades Hades?”
“We should get out of here,” CJ says. “It’s almost dawn.”
Ezra gives them a pointed look. “I’m sure someone will fill me in later.”
Tolliver is still checking out the slashes across his torso when I run to him, throwing my arms around his neck. He freezes for a moment, then his arms go around me, gripping me tight, and I realize I’m shaking.
That was so close. If CJ had waited too long to break the flask, if Hades’s weapon had landed just centimeters in either direction.
If I hadn’t fallen for Rook’s con.
“Hey,” Tolliver whispers into my hair. “You’re good. We’re all good.”
Someone clears their throat, and I realize I’ve been hugging Tolliver for far too long. I pull away, but before I can get too far, his hand is on my cheek, brushing away the tears I didn’t know I’d been crying.
There’s the sound of flapping wings and a strident caw. I duck my head and step back just as Crowlene lands on my shoulder.
“Late again.” I roll my eyes.
She clicks back at me.
“So, uh,” Ezra says. “Is it just me, or is Hades kind of hot?”
He’s standing over her body. The mist has dissipated enough that she’s now visible, lying on the ground, her white-blond hair strewn across the grave dirt. If we wait much longer, the mist will have evaporated, and she’ll wake up.
CJ shrugs, still holding the bident. “Even hot people can die.” They flip the weapon over, aim it directly at Hades’s heart, and bring it down.
There’s an awful crunch, and then something squishes and pops. Ezra gags behind me. CJ lets go of the bident, and it just stands there, upside down, prongs embedded into Hades’s chest. Blood starts to pool.
I blink. “Well. Okay then.”
“I’m so confused right now,” Ezra says. “Did that solve whatever went wrong?”
Tolliver groans as he picks up his bag. “We’ve got to get out of here. The Juliet is almost gone, and it’ll be light soon.”
He’s right, but there’s one more thing to do before we leave. I do a quick scan of the area. Grave dirt is overturned, a few headstones cracked. Several flasks and mist masks scatter the ground. Hades’s body is skewered on top of the nearest grave, but hers is the only body I see.
Rook is gone, and he’s taken the grimoire with him.