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“So it would seem,” Lawson said.
Marrok took a long drink from his goblet. “There’s something more you should know. We have been tracking the hounds as well, to avoid their movements. One of our spies found this in the remnants of their camp. I think it belongs to you?” He handed it to Lawson.
Lawson stared at it in his palm. It was a small gold chain with a heart locket, engraved with a crescent moon. A trinket from the mall, a cheap little thing, but Tala had wanted it and he had given it to her. She always wore it; she never took it off. Someone must have pulled it off her neck, must have broken the chain.
“It’s Tala’s, isn’t it?” Bliss asked.
“Yes.” Romulus was taunting him, Lawson thought; Romulus knew the wolves were tracking the hounds, and he’d meant for someone to find it, to bring it back to Lawson. Romulus wanted Lawson to know he held her life in his hands. Wanted Lawson to come to him to rescue her. Wanted Lawson to show himself, wanted to bring him closer.
“Tala, who escaped with you?” Marrok asked.
Lawson nodded. “But she did not get away the second time. When the hounds returned.”
“We did not see a wolf in their midst, but we could be wrong. Their numbers are great. Our spies tell me that Romulus’s pack is making its way here. They will be upon us in a day or two.”
“They are close, then—that must have been why Malcolm felt ill,” Lawson said.
Marrok continued. “He is gathering his hounds for Rome, to the beginning of the empire’s founding, as Lucifer wanted. The loss of the chronolog hasn’t changed or slowed his plan, but I don’t understand how he presumes to navigate the dark roads without one. Without a chronolog to guide them, the passages are useless. He must know something we don’t.”
Lawson ruminated on the news, still holding the small gold chain tightly. “Let him find the passages. Let him come.”
Marrok frowned. “What are you saying? I’ve sent a call to the wolves to defend the passages from him.”
But Lawson was adamant. The light was back in his eyes, and his voice was confident. “When Romulus and his hounds arrive, we will let them inside the passages. Let them go to Rome. I will take my pack after and follow him inside.”
“What?” Bliss cried out.
“I’m with her,” Marrok said. “Why?”
“Outside of Hell, Romulus is vulnerable. Especially in Rome, he will have to retain human form. He will be weaker. Don’t you see? We can kill him, Marrok. I know we can. We must strike now. This might be our only chance.”
“Kill an ancient wolf? You forget he is immortal. Only we new pups die like ants crushed beneath a heel.”
“I did not forget,” Lawson said. He removed a small velvet pouch and showed them the needle inside it, which had unlocked their collars in the underworld. “I still have this.” Before their eyes, it grew to the size of a sword, shining golden in the moonlight.
“That is Michael’s sword,” Bliss breathed. “An archangel’s blade. But it was broken,” she said, remembering how the glass she had held had shattered into a million pieces.
“A heavenly blade is never broken, the masters found it after a great battle aboveground,” Lawson explained. “It was the deadliest weapon in Hell’s arsenal. It carries the White Fire of Heaven.” The Hand of God, it was known as among the creatures of the underworld.
“It can kill that which cannot be killed,” Bliss murmured, thinking of the blood the sword had shed. Of how it had been used for ill gain. Of the vampires who had fallen to its power. It was the sword that had killed Lawrence Van Alen. It was the sword that she had plunged into her own heart, breaking her father’s hold on her spirit.
“It can kill Romulus and it will,” Lawson said, gritting his teeth. “I swear it.”
At the end of the meal, Marrok bid them good night. “You will be safe here,” he promised. “Until daybreak, then.”
Lawson left Bliss as well to check on his brothers. She found a few worn blankets at the edge of the platform and settled down to rest, although sleep did not come easily. Lawson’s plan worried her. He was so certain he could bring down Romulus and maybe even rescue Tala. Was Tala in a position to be rescued? Bliss thought of the ugly black scar on Ahramin’s neck and shuddered. Lawson was filled with hope now, and it was driving his decisions, but that didn’t mean his plan had any chance of succeeding. And if it didn’t succeed, Lawson and his brothers were headed for either death or captivity. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
On top of everything else, Bliss had a larger purpose for finding the pack in the first place. She was supposed to tame the wolves, to bring them back to the fold. How was she going to do that if her friends—and even though she had just met them, she kne
w they were her friends—were captured or dead? Jane was still missing too, and they weren’t any closer to finding her.
Bliss sat up with a start. It had just occurred to her how Jane was connected to the hounds. What was it that Marrok had said about the passages?
I don’t understand how he presumes to navigate the dark roads without the chronolog.
Then it occurred to her. The answer wasn’t what Romulus would use; it was who. She had to find Lawson and tell him immediately. She scaled down the trees, finding her footing in the dark. She followed the murmur of familiar voices and found Lawson, Rafe, and Malcolm huddled in a lower enclosure.
“Hey, Bliss,” Malcolm said, smiling. “Cool to be around all the wolves, right? Almost feels like home.”
