Chapter Thirty-Six
Thirty-Six
We don’t go back to my house in case Rook is waiting for us.
He won’t be able to get in, but that doesn’t mean he can’t ambush us before we get inside.
Instead, we take the hearse to CJ’s place just outside of Salem.
Their apartment is a two-bedroom walk-up in a surprisingly average complex.
An elderly neighbor walks by as CJ is unlocking their door, and CJ nods back.
“Hey, Benny. How’s Rachel’s hip?”
Tolliver and I share matching stunned looks.
“Still on the mend,” Benny says. “But she appreciates the fudge brownies you sent over. She wants the recipe.”
“I’ll bring it over tomorrow,” CJ says, opening the door and nodding for us to go in.
Who are you? I mouth at them as I enter their apartment.
Crowlene flaps in after us, landing on a perch much nicer than the one I have at home—one that I think is actually meant for birds—and settles in as though she’s a guest here all the time. Maybe she is.
The living room looks like a Pottery Barn catalog, with neutral colors, decorative vases, and rustic touches. I pick up a framed picture from a freaking credenza to find my face smiling back at me.
It’s the whole crew before Dante died. He holds me in a playful headlock.
Tolliver stands next to us, shirtless for some reason, his eyes on me instead of the camera.
Crowlene perches atop Dante’s head, wings mid-flap as though she’s about to take off.
On the other side, Poppy poses next to CJ, who isn’t smiling but has a spark in their eyes that I haven’t seen in a long time.
With a sigh, I set the picture back and join the others at a small kitchen table.
It’s silent, just like the drive over. CJ’s eyes are glazed. Tolliver is tapping the table. Ezra is looking between them with wide eyes.
Finally, he sits forward and meets my gaze. “Care to fill me in on what just happened?”
I swallow. “You first.”
Ezra rolls his eyes and groans. “There’s nothing to tell.
We waited for you at the rendezvous as long as we could, but we were cutting it too close.
CJ gives Creepy McGee her finger bone. She vanishes.
We wait, but nothing happens. We spend a good hour dodging demons and guards before we get pulled back to the graveyard. ”
“It was fifteen minutes, tops,” I mutter.
“CJ vanishes first. Then I get brought back and find you and Tolliver fighting a demon and apparently Hades?”
He looks at me expectantly. So do CJ and Tolliver.
I purse my lips, not meeting their gazes. I know I have to tell them, but the thing is, I really don’t want to.
I take a deep breath. “I was…conned.”
They don’t react.
“Rook…played me.”
Ezra blinks. “Oddly enough, I put that together myself. What I don’t get is how or why or what. Or who or when or where.”
I scratch the back of my neck. “It appears, like with all good cons, the mark”—I point dejectedly to myself—“thought she was in control. But the conman was the one pulling the strings the whole time.”
Ezra continues to stare at me blankly.
“Rook is a demon,” I say. “Which I guess is obvious in hindsight.”
Tolliver gasps. “Dude! The giant mansion, the suits, the really old stuff…”
“No, because of his magic,” I say.
“Oh, right.” Tolliver nods knowingly.
Rook’s magic was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Except I had. Every time I’d seen a demon use their magic. Just like the rest of them, his powers were limitless. He even fought the other demon at the gala. Looking back, there were so many red flags. Dante would be so disappointed.
Rule #16: Never let yourself become a mark.
I take a shuddering breath. “Anyway, it’s clear Rook is part of the Cult of Hades, seeing as he conned us into resurrecting Hades so she can raise an army of the Dead and, I don’t know, take over the world. Or whatever it is that evil people do.”
Ezra lays his head in his arms. CJ’s expression is unreadable.
“So…” Tolliver says, “do we, like, do something?”
“Yeah,” I say. “We lay low until this blows over. I mean, CJ stuck a fork in Hades. I think we’re good.”
Ezra lifts his head. “Somehow, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy. Killing Hades with her own weapon? Sounds fake.”
“She said Titans were killable,” I argue.
“Okay, sure,” Ezra says. “I’m just saying the rules may be different now that you brought her back to life and put her in someone else’s body. She might wake up and pull that giant shrimp fork out of her chest and go on with her world domination as though it were a bad case of heartburn.”
“When I kill people, they stay dead,” CJ says.
Tolliver clucks his tongue. “You’re going to feel really silly when Hades shows up alive in a few days.”
Ezra whips his head toward CJ with horror. “How many people have you killed?”
CJ only stares at him.
Tolliver sits forward. “Alright, I think we should hide Elle. There’s obviously a reason Rook chose her to do the ritual and that Hades wants her to keep doing it.”
“Yeah,” CJ says. “Because Elle was the only one of us stupid enough to fall for it.”
Tolliver scoffs in offense.
I shrug. “No, that’s a fair hit.”
“What about Poppy?” Tolliver asks.
I grit my teeth, picturing Poppy’s face as she turned me over to the Nightshades, Dante’s soul pulsing in the distance.
“I think…” My voice fails and I clear my throat. “I think Poppy is going to be staying with the Phantoms for the foreseeable future.”
CJ slaps the table.
“She betrayed us?” Tolliver asks.
“I didn’t say that,” I argue.
“But you also didn’t not say that.”
“I—it’s—Poppy—” I splutter, then sigh. “She did what she had to do.”
“She gave you up to the syndicates, didn’t she?” CJ all but growls.
I scratch the back of my neck. “Can we get back on track?”
“Screw that,” CJ says, pushing away from the table. “It’s bad enough that she worked for my family before, but now…”
“Look,” Ezra says placatingly. “Jobs go bad. They just do. Crew members betray you. And that’s why I work alone.”
He sits back and crosses his arms.
We’re all silent for a moment.
I clear my throat. “When you started, I thought it was going to be motivational.”
“It was.”
“You can’t fool me. It’s too late, New Guy. You’re part of this crew, and you love it.” I reach over and pinch his cheek.
“There is no crew,” CJ insists.
I scoff. “Well, there has to be, because now we have to save the world from Hades, I guess.”
“ ‘We’?” CJ asks. “That was your mistake.”
I jerk back. “Uh, hello. Who gave Credence the finger bone?”
“On your orders!”
“Actually, I specifically told you to wait for me. And since when do you listen to me anyway?”
CJ groans. “I’ve followed you on this unhinged job from the beginning.”
“So, now you’re just going to leave me to figure this out on my own?”
Tolliver shakes his head. “They’re not going to leave you.” He turns to CJ. “You’re not going to leave her.” He turns to me. “We’re not going to leave you.”
“Are you sure?” I snap. “Because you all were pretty okay with leaving me after Dante died.”
“For the last time,” CJ grits out, “we didn’t leave. You sent us away. And for the record, I check on you at least once a month.”
“Why?” I ask. “Because Dante’s pathetic little sister needs to be babysat?”
“What?”
“I’m not Dante, okay? I don’t plan everything out.
I’m impulsive and selfish and apparently really bad at remembering to pay bills.
And yes, I sold almost everything for this job and kind of lived like a troll this past year.
But so what if I accidentally brought Hades back from the dead?
I brought someone back from the dead! Meaning we can still resurrect Dante.
So I’m sorry that I disappointed you and that I got you stuck working with your family again and that I probably brought on the apocalypse. But I’m not sorry for being me.”
The room is quiet for a moment.
“Good,” CJ says. They clear their throat and give me an appraising look. “Now that you’ve admitted this whole thing is your fault, let’s talk about how we plan to fix it.”
An hour into discussing possible ways to prevent Armageddon, there’s a knock on CJ’s door.
We all fall silent, staring at one another, until Ezra finally says, “I don’t think Hades would knock.”
With a dramatic groan, CJ begrudgingly stands. They hesitate for a moment, then open the door. In the breezeway, with an extremely put-out look on his face, stands senior Reaper and Secretary of Health Adam Waring.
“Yikes,” I say under my breath.
“How did you find us?” CJ demands.
“Like it’s hard,” Ezra mutters. “You leave a trail of craft supplies and unhidden IP addresses. It’s a miracle you’ve all survived this long.”
I scowl at the others. “Have you guys not been Googling incognito?”
“Where’s ‘cognito’?” Tolliver asks.
I turn back to Ezra. “You may have a point.”
“May I come in?” Waring asks, adjusting his tie. He’s in a perfectly tailored suit, a briefcase at his side. He brushes a moth from his shoulder, then watches us, unblinking.
CJ looks back at me questioningly. I crane my neck to peek past Waring. I don’t see anyone else.
“Let’s get this over with,” I say.
CJ gestures into the living room, and Waring walks in, plastering on a fake smile.
“I need to speak with Ms. Fields. Alone.”
Tolliver stands suddenly, putting himself between me and Waring, followed quickly by CJ. Crowlene flies over and lands on Tolliver’s shoulder. She lets out a caw that seems to surprise her. Ezra pushes her intestines back in.
Waring takes in the scene and heaves a long-suffering sigh. “Ms. Fields made a mistake, and it’s up to her to rectify it.”
“On that we agree,” CJ says. “Why do you need to speak with her alone?”
Waring’s smile remains in place. “She has nothing to fear from me. She never has.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “I have nothing to fear from you? I was in your little prison and your boss had me tortured.”
Everyone’s heads snap toward me.
“It’s fine.” I wave them off. “It was just light torture.”
“Nyx isn’t my boss,” Waring says, his smile starting to slip.
“I guess that’s Thanatos, right? You’re all working together now so it’s hard to keep track of alliances.”