“Everyone got that?” He rubbed his hands together. “We all know our roles?”
“Do you hear that?” Carter lifted a hand, angling her head to one side. “Sounds like voices.”
“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Those are woes.” Ankou pointed toward a rocky patch of coastline. “Every time a wave breaks against the stones, it cracks open a woe. You’ll hear one every few seconds, but most aren’t loud enough to be a bother.” He dismissed them with flip of his wrist. “Ignore them.”
Anunit’s whiskers angled forward, and she tilted her head. “Another illusion?”
“They’re very real.” Ankou considered her. “Each one came from someone Dis Pater bargained with who now regrets their life choices. That’s why the tones are distinct. They’re an actual person’s actual voice.”
“That…” Josie shook with a full-body shiver, “…is creepy as fuck.”
“You took the words right out of my mouth, Mary.” I shuddered as we came near enough for me to hear them for myself. “Are there any normal gods?”
“You’re in the wrong pantheon for normal, Bijou. Death gods are, by definition, creepy fucks.”
The limited experience I had with death gods, and their associates, made me inclined to agree.
What had appeared to be a smattering of palms thickened into a dense, junglelike muddle as we trekked over the shifting sands. About the time I was ready to kick off my shoes and socks, I stumbled out onto a pristine stretch of beach and froze at the sight before me.
On a rope strung from the heavens hung a simple bamboo cage large enough to hold a Mardi Gras float.
All it contained was a pale figure, nude, curled on his side with his arms wrapped around his knees.
“Kierce,” I breathed his name, a world of hurt cracking open in my chest.
His head shot up, his gaze locking with mine, and a million emotions shadowed his features.
Then I was running. Straight to him. And all the careful planning flew out the window.
Halfway there, I was struck across the shoulders, and I went down hard.
A childhood spent wrestling with my siblings left me no doubt Josie had been the one who tackled me.
“Frankie.” Kierce clutched at the bars, heaving himself into a seated position.“Frankie.”
The weight on my back bounced a couple of times as Josie called out, “Hey, Birdfriend.”
There was nothing human in his eyes when he stared at her, his upper lip trembling with a snarl.
“Bind the cage,” Carter snapped at her.“Now.”
“Right.” Josie summoned her vine, shooting it across the remaining distance until it latched hold of the bars. “Come on, baby. Do your thing for Momma.” She wove them with expert precision, zipping up and down the bars in zigzagging stitches until the cage was reinforced in living vine. “That ought to hold him.”
A pained exhale whistled past my lips, and hearing that pathetic groan tore a roar from Kierce’s throat.
“Maybe get off Frankie.” Carter hooked her hands under Josie’s arms and dragged her off, dumping her next to me. “We don’t want to upset him, and he clearly doesn’t want anyone touching her.”
As much as I wanted to believe that was a good sign, that it was evidence he cared, I couldn’t ignore the bars separating us.Remove those, put us face-to-face, and there was no telling what he would do to me.
With precautions in place, I pushed to my feet and started toward him, my heart breaking as he reached for me through the bars. The urge to reach back, take his hand, tingled in my palm, but I resisted with an ache that moved through me like that bolt of lightning.
Hot. Bright. Damning.
There was no sign of Badb, who might have clued me in to his mindset, and that churned nausea too. He would never forgive himself if he hurt her, but I had no way to call her to me. I could only wait and see if she came to investigate once she heard our voices and realized we had caught up to her.
Please, God, let the reckless bird have reached him in one piece.
As well as Badb knew Abaddon, I wasn’t too concerned, but I wouldn’t be easy until I set eyes on her.
