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, likeHadesHades?”
“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 amoment, 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 stridentcaw. 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.
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.
