Next to me, Harrow scanned the terrain for clues. “Whatever it is, it’s getting closer.”
Straining my ears, I finally picked up on the noise, but it was more of a rustle than a rush to my ears.
“I don’t think that’s water.” I rocked back on my heels, away from the edge. “Carter?”
“Definitely not water.” She nudged Josie behind her, tucking my sister between her and the rock wall we had been skirting for hours. “It’s almost like someone dragging something, but that rhythmic shushing…”
“I’ll check it out.” Harrow located a solid handhold, prepping to climb, when a serpentine head emerged above us, gazingdown at us with fangs as long as my torso on display. “Or maybe it will check us out.”
“It’s got a spade-shaped head.” Josie peeked over Carter’s shoulder. “That means it’s venomous.”
And our handy-dandy creature killer was several yards straight down with no hope of reaching us before the snake had a chance to strike. That left me. But I had to act fast. “I’m going to?—”
Before I finished the thought, vines shot from Josie’s pocket. They struck the serpent in the snout, wrapping its jaws, piercing its glinting scales. She yanked until she had muzzled the beast and forced its maw shut.
“Mary.” I swung my head toward her, impressed at her speed. “That was?—”
Impact drove me to my knees beneath a weight I had no hope of shifting off me, and I gasped as oxygen crushed from my lungs. An oddly warm pressure slid across me, rasping my skin with a metallic edge.
Oh no.
No, no, no.
That snake hadnotjust landed on top of me.
Except, as it looped me in a coil and began to squeeze, I had to face the facts.
That snakehadjust landed on top of me.
And, apparently, it had decided that if it couldn’t swallow us whole, it would settle for constricting me to death. This must be karmic retribution for whining about how I didn’t get enough hugs as a kid.
With impending doom staring me in the face, I had no choice but to reach into that well of power at my core and let my consciousness drift. The light seeping from the serpent stung my eyes with its brilliance. I had never seen a soul this large, but I managed to frame it between my palms and focus my energy onsnuffing out its spark. Shrill screams rang distantly in my ears as ash flurried around me.
Then I was blinking away the fuzzy edges crowding my vision. Black smudges marred my shaking hands, and a mountain of charred remains pressed down on and around me. I clawed out an opening wide enough to suck in oxygen and locked gazes with Josie, who trembled in the unwavering circle of Carter’s arms.
“You didn’t need help coming back to yourself,” she rasped, searching my face for answers. “You just…”
“It’s easier here.” Tearing my eyes from hers, I swallowed hard around the truth. “To kill.”
“This is the land of the dead, and you’re a death demigoddess.” Harrow kicked a path clear, linked our forearms, and hauled me out. “Don’t make it deeper than it is, okay?”
“No promises.” I flexed my fingers. “Death shouldn’t be that simple.”
The first time I extinguished a soul, back at St. Mary’s, I lost myself to the magic. To protect Josie, I killed one of the sisters. I felt no remorse for it. Not then and not now. But it had sucked me in, whispered the path forward meant letting go of the past, of myself. To end a life that way, I had to break free of my physical self, to almost astrally project myself into my victim. And, as Vi had warned me, the danger in my soul wandering was in how easy it was to lose that anchor to my body and drift into the unknown.
Terrifying as it was to endure that each time, I was grateful for the fear. It kept me from falling back on a power that should never be used lightly or without careful consideration of the outcome. Abaddon made dipping into that well of power easy. Too easy. Death shouldn’t be as quick as clenching my fist.
“You’re…growing into…your powers.”
Whipping my head right, I watched as Anunit crested the outcropping that would bring her level with us. Ankou, bruised and bloodied, hung from her mouth by the scruff of his neck. “You survived, I see.”
“No thanks…to…you.”
With a horking noise, Anunit spat him at my feet, clearly stating he was now my problem.
“Yes, well, I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not.” I nudged him onto his back with my shoe, cataloguing his injuries. “How long before you can walk?”
“So…cold…Bijou.”
