Chapter 42
Elysia paced in the empty warehouse. Her black boots struck hard against the concrete floor of the wide-open building as she walked back and forth. Jessa’s gaze trailed her as she leaned against the wall with her arms crossed.
“You’re making me nervous, stop.”
She came to a halt, spinning to scowl at Jessa. “Remember when we were so convinced I could make a deal with Aidan, and it could fix things?”
Jessa lifted a shoulder. “I was never that enthusiastic, but sure.”
“This feels like that.” She hadn’t looked at the fated hourglass today, but intuitively she knew the sand was almost at its end.
“Like it’s going to go sideways?”
She twisted her fingers together. “Something’s wrong.”
Pushing off the wall, Jessa grabbed her by the shoulders. “Of course, something is off. This plan is insane, but it’s the best we’ve got, so get your fucking head on straight, and pull it together.”
Elysia nodded rapidly, bouncing on her toes. “I think Aidan’s rubbing off on me.”
Jessa’s eyebrows drew together in question, and Elysia pulled out of her grasp. “He worries. About everything. All the time. He’s anxious,” she clarified.
“Right, well, cut it out because you need to nail this.”
She closed her eyes, slowing her breaths until the ragged expansion and deflation of her lungs consumed her nerves. “Focusing.”
Jessa’s voice reverberated weirdly in the empty building. “She summons them. You find out where the talisman is and nab it before you’re dead. Easy.”
Elysia’s gaze darted away from Jessa just as a banging on the door echoed loudly. Jessa grabbed her shoulder again.
“That is the plan, right?” Menace graveled her voice, and somehow it soothed Elysia to hear it.
She smiled sweetly, wishing her sister were there. “Definitely the plan.”
Jessa dropped her arm and cursed, but Elysia was already flinging open the heavy door of the Reyez warehouse. The whole crew filed past her looking grim as she gripped the metal door tight enough that her knuckles turned white. It appeared she wasn’t the only one who was a barrel of raging nerves.
“Everybody ready?” She stuck her hands into her pockets to hide how they shook. Even if this did work, there was a strong chance she wouldn’t be walking out of here, but they didn’t know that, and she couldn’t let them. She fisted her hands, forcing the shaking to stop.
Topp stood tall above the others, shifting his weight from foot to foot as he cleared his throat. “Can I talk to you?”
Lucy and Jessa grumbled at his interruption, clearly wanting to just get on with it. They were on a tight schedule.
He held his hands up placatingly. “Just take a minute. I swear.”
Elysia nodded, following him outside the warehouse to where it sleeted steadily. Spring in Bellia was a sloppy, dangerous time where rain froze into wet sleet that iced over all the roads at night before melting into dirty gunk. It was disgusting. Hunching into herself, she squinted up at him.
“What is it?”
Topp rubbed the back of his neck, his face creasing. “I can’t help.”
Sleet smacked her in the face as her mouth slid open, her honest surprise plummeting like familiar betrayal through her chest. Voice dangerously low, she strung him up with her gaze. “We are two minutes away from trapping the godsdamn fates, the most ancient of beings, and you want to cut out now?”
Sleet flattened his hair, making odd pieces stick out as he ran his fingers through it. He sighed tiredly. “Lys, you don’t need me.”
She stopped, shock coursing through her. “You don’t know that. My magic isn’t battle ready yet. I’ve been trying, but I’m just not there.” She was rambling, unsettled by this last-minute change in the plan, with old feelings of Topp letting her down surging and dictating her response.
He looked at her with icy flecks dripping off his nose, his green eyes dimmer than usual and begging her to see reason. “You have a woman in there who could blow up this entire building.”
“But she sucks at limiting it to people!” Elysia exploded back, her barely restrained anxiety now rampaging. It was one thing for her to die, but she needed to know everyone else would make it out, and he was threatening that.
She walked a fine line, drawing the fates here to retrieve the talisman without tipping them off about any of her other plans.
She’d come up with idea after idea, making Aidan run the odds.
She’d taken stupid, concrete action in a hundred different directions all to ensure the threads never solidified into what she truly hoped to do.
Even Aidan didn’t know her exact plan. It was the single idea she hadn’t run the odds on.
And now Topp fucking Blatz thought he was going to ruin it all?
His hand covered his mouth for a moment, then gestured to her belt. “Oren has a lead on killing demigods that isn’t the scissors. I need to follow it.”
She stared down at the wet, rocky ground, only now realizing he was dressed in heavy boots and had an overstuffed rucksack on his back with a canteen hanging off it. “Are you taking Rollie too?”
Guilt shone out of his eyes.
Ire stirred in the bottom of her stomach as her brain put it all together. “You can’t have Lucy. Not today. She’s the only one who can group travel.”
He tilted his head in acknowledgment and adjusted the strap of his rucksack. “We’ve got it covered.”
With a hand on her dagger, she spat out the question she knew would put their friendship in the grave. “Fuck Oren’s lead. You’re helping her, aren’t you?”
Topp looked uneasy, his mouth fumbling for an answer he didn’t have. Because he wasn’t supposed to know about the scissors. No one knew about the scissors strapped to her belt except her and the woman who had stolen them.
Venom dripped from her voice as she pressed her dagger to his stomach much like she had his father only so many months before. “You’re lucky I don’t gut you right here, Blatz.”
She spun on her heel, gravel spitting out from her boot, but stopped with her hand on the chilled metal of the door handle. Looking over her shoulder, Topp had turned away from her. Shoulders curved and back flexed with his fists clenched, he warred with himself.
But she wasn’t wasting another breath on Topp Blatz.
Shaking her head, she marched back into the warehouse, leaving him behind for good.
She shook off the sleet from her all-black attire and stormed over to Rollickus, grabbing him by his shirt collar. Disgust thickened her voice as she held him in her grip. “Anything you want to say?”
Rollie jerked away, attempting to smooth out his shirt. He frowned at the ruined material before giving up. Adjusting his glasses, he studied her and glanced at the closed warehouse door. “So, he is up to something then.”
Face devoid of any warmth, her jaw ground. “I have a job to do. Go follow him if you want, but don’t be surprised when he leaves you for dead.”
Rollie’s sharp eyes became calculating. Buttoning his jacket up, he spoke. “Do you really think I would ever trust a Crown squinch?” He almost reached for her but dropped his hand when she stepped back. Rare uncertainty flashed across his face. “You’re sure you’ve got this handled?”
Her mouth flattened. “Just get out.”
Responsibility fell heavily on her. Down by two people—two people with physical magic—they were far less protected than before.
Worse than that, she’d been played again by the same man, but the cards were already in motion, and it was too late to stop the game now.
She threw up one hand with an irritated breath.
“It’s better this way. Everything else remains as it was.”
Jessa rubbed her palms against each other and nodded in agreement. “Never liked working with that asshole. Should’ve planked him when I had the chance.”
The Doorman, cunning as ever, scanned Elysia for signs of an impending breakdown. “He has his uses. Are you going to tell us what happened?”
Face tight, Elysia shook her head and brushed her thumb over the hilt of her dagger. Forget planking him, she should’ve stabbed him. Turning her stare to Daphne, she practically growled when she asked, “Are we ready?”
Pale and trembling, Daphne did not look ready for what was to come, but she nodded weakly, and that was the best they were going to get from her. Elysia glanced at her watch impatiently. Just then, a reaper with a flight-ruffled braid and torn uniform appeared in the warehouse.
Bloodied with satisfaction in her eyes, she addressed Elysia. “The Grim requests I inform you the reaper mission is complete. The fates are in the mortal realm, and he is engaging them. Work fast.” She disappeared.
Her plans had changed, but she couldn’t dwell on that. She’d gotten one beautiful night with a man she knew she could love, and right now he was probably losing his mind as the odds tanked and her death grew unavoidable. Good thing he was stuck in the death realm.
Elysia ran her fingers over her belt, checking off each item—water pouch, dagger, one already used potion, and finally the gods-ending scissors. Chest tight, she looked every single woman in the eyes before she spoke.
“Tonight, we change fate. Don’t doubt, don’t hesitate, or we’re dead.”
The Doorman lifted her voice. “For Beatriz.” Normally enchanting, tonight she was the lethal edge of steel.
“For Beatriz.” Their voices echoed out in the warehouse, pinging back to them smaller and tinnier than they’d left.
Grabbing a heavy box, Elysia held it out.
In silence, hands reached into the box, pulling out the gas masks she’d asked Rollie to devise.
At least he’d come through with that. Her jaw ticked as everyone slid the masks on.
Black masks molded to look like skulls hid their faces and protected them from what was to come.
Elysia slipped on her leather gloves, quickly tucking in the icy blonde hair flowing out from beneath Daphne’s mask.
Taking a seat on the floor, Daphne’s eyes closed.
The summoning had begun.