Page 29

“Boys?” Eve’s forehead creases. “Not boys, beasts,” she says.

I look her up and down. After five years in this witch’s presence, I am truly sick of her riddles and her craziness. I am sick of her fragile, willowy frame. I am sick of her sharp angles and her sallow skin. I am sick of fucking her to keep her loyal and of placating her every whim so she doesn’t turn on me.

When she provided a link to The King, I dared not upset her. I could never have communicated with him across dimensions if she had not channeled the dark magick necessary to do so. I would not have been able to make the exchange that saw him bring Elena back to me without Eve performing the ritual. But now Elena is back, and my part of the deal is complete. I gave The King what he asked for, and Eve is no longer necessary.

“Beasts?” I ask her, already bored and itching to return to my wife.

“The King’s hounds,” she says, a sparkle lighting in her dark eyes. “Hellhounds. Beasts that belong to neither dimension… so beautiful, so strong.” She jerks her head from side to side and exhales a deep shuddering breath. “He sent them from his world. He sent them into my care. They drank my blood and they came to me. Our babies. Our children. But they’re gone. I can’t find them.”

“Hellhounds?” Something stiffens inside me; I always believed hellhounds to be a myth. A fairy tale dreamed up to keep young supers in line—behave or the hellhounds will drag you down to the underworld and let you burn.

Eve nods fervently and looks back toward the forest. “They are here for The Phoenix,” she says, stepping closer to the trees. “They should have brought her back by now, but they have not returned. What do we do, Ragnor? What do we do?”

Breathing in slowly, I grit my teeth. Then calmly I say, “Eve, The King has the name and location of The Phoenix. Whatever he does next is no concern of mine. I kept my side of the bargain—I found the Fire Bird, I tested her strength, and I restrained myself from being the one to finish her so that he might do it himself.” I flex my fingers at my sides; it still aggravates me that I was not allowed to end the girl myself. I toyed with the idea of trying to capture her power, and I spent many nights dreaming of the ways in which I could end her pathetic young life when I was done with her.

If I had her power, I wouldn’t need The King to create a new world order. I could do it myself. But I wanted Elena more than I wanted the Fire Bird’s power. So, I was willing to make the sacrifice he asked of me.

“But he needs our help,” Eve says, meeting my eyes. “He needs the hounds to bring her to him and drain her blood so he can rise again. Without her blood—”

“If you want to help him, be my guest,” I tell her. “But I want no part of it. The King promised that I will be given a safe place in the new order of things if he returns and that Elena will be by my side. Whatever else is happening, I care not.”

“But this is what you wanted,” Eve says, grabbing my arm. “You wanted the King to rise, so that humans may become our servants. You wanted the new way of things. You wanted—” She is rattling off the same spiel I have been giving her, and the rest of the League, for years.

She’s right; I do want those things. I believed in the League’s mission long before I learned of The Phoenix and The King’s plan to return.

But I want my wife more. Now she is home, I truly couldn’t give a damn what happens to the rest of the world. I shake Eve loose from me and look back at the house. “I want Elena,” I tell her. “Nothing else matters to me now that she is here.”

I’m stalking back to the house when I notice my breath pooling in thick clouds in front of me. The air has changed. It is cold, ice-cold.

I turn slowly and look back at Eve. She is kneeling on the ground, and she is surrounded by… creatures. Not werewolves—large, gray beasts with ferociously huge heads, dripping jaws, and skin stretched tight over their bones. Hellhounds.

Eve is stroking them, sobbing as they nuzzle into her. “My babies,” she cries. “So few of you have returned. Where are your brothers and sisters? What happened to you, my loves?”

Above Eve’s head, the air begins to shake. A huge black hole appears, like a rip in the atmosphere. Beyond it, the image that greets me makes me fall to my knees.

“Where is The Phoenix?” the voice of The Shadow King fills the air.

My breath tightens in my chest. I can barely breathe. I gasp and reach for my throat. I see his face. I see him. Not a man, or a demon, or any living thing I recognize.

“Where is The Phoenix?” he roars again.

“She defeated the hounds, my king,” Eve cries, waving her arms at the beasts that surround her. “These are all that remain.”

A thunderous roar rocks the sky and shakes the mansion.

“Then we will have to try again, won’t we?” The King snarls. As the hole grows smaller, and his monstrous image disappears, I hear him add, “Ragnor, do not forget that I can take back what I gave you. You are my servant, and you would do well to remember that.”

20

TANNER

When we reach the falls, a wave of comfort washes over me. It has been too long since I was last here, and it takes every ounce of willpower I possess not to run to the water, shed my clothes, and dive beneath the surface.

Instead, I watch Nova’s face as she catches her first glimpse of them.

“Remember when I told you I’d bring you here for our first date?” I ask, slipping my hand into hers. “For a swimming lesson?”

Nova looks up at me and smiles. It’s genuine; a happy memory from before everything got a little too real. “I was scared of you seeing me in a bathing suit,” she says. “But I was telling the truth when I said I can’t swim—I really can’t.”