With a clank, the door cracked open. A sliver of a face peered out, then the daemon opened the door.
“Ether?” Piper said blankly.
He blinked at her, his head tilting to one side as he struggled to recognize her. The slender daemon looked just as she remembered: an unremarkable face, bright blue eyes, and that dorky sweater vest over a long-sleeved shirt. She wasn’t sure if he was deliberately trying to appear as harmless as possible, or if he was just bad at imitating human dress.
“Ah,” he said in his light, quiet tenor as recognition sparked in his gaze. “You are Kindra’s friend. She is not here.”
“I know. She went home a couple months ago.”
“That is good. Much safer.”
“Why are you still here?” she asked curiously.
He just looked at her, his blue eyes revealing nothing.
She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Uh, we need to talk to Lilith.”
Ether pulled the door open wider, making room for them. Piper walked in, wrinkling her nose at the musty smell of a building that had been closed up for too long. Calder followed her in and Ether bolted the door behind them.
“This way,” he said.
He led the way through the maze of halls until they walked out into the main room of the club. Broken tables and chairs littered the floor, along with a generous sprinkling of garbage. The only illumination came from emergency lights glowing high on the ceiling two stories up. She peered around, her heart sinking. The Styx clearly hadn’t survived the conflict in the city untouched.
“I’ll get her.” Ether retreated to another hall, his footsteps echoing through the room as he disappeared.
She and Calder waited in silence. She tried not to fidget as the minutes dragged on, unable to calm her spinning thoughts and worries. What if Lilith couldn’t—or wouldn’t—help her? She wasn’t a fan of asking the succubus for yet another favor but she had no other ideas.
“Ah,” a female voice sighed. “Calder and Piper. How interesting to see you again.”
A shadow appeared in the hallway and Lilith slowly stepped into the light. Her cheeks were hollow, porcelain skin pale in a sickly way, blond hair hanging around her shoulders. She wore leather pants and a red tank top, no makeup. Still beautiful, but not the glamorous succubus Piper remembered.
“I can’t begin to imagine why you’re back,” Lilith continued, bitterness mixing with her singsong tone. “There is no one here to rescue this time. The only daemons who remain are not planning to leave.” She raised an eyebrow at Piper. “Unless you’ve come to repay your debt.”
“I need a favor,” Piper said, seeing no point in skirting around her objective.
The bitterness twisted Lilith’s face. “Of course. Why else would you visit me? Somewhere along the line, you mistook me for a generous woman, Piper.”
“There’s a chance we can save the city from the Hades war,” she said neutrally, resisting Lilith’s verbal bait, “if you can help us.”
Lilith’s lips curled. “A chance to save the city. So tempting. Forgive me if I have little faith in your ability to deliver on that promise.”
“It’s not a promise. It’s a chance.” Piper studied Lilith in the dim light. The succubus was tired, worn. She’d lost almost everything since Piper had met her, starting with the truth pendant she’d lent Piper.
Dismissing her hesitation, she began to unlace one of her armguards. “The pendant I lost in the Underworld was a priceless tool and I know I can never make up for its loss. It helped me find and save Ash, and it saved my life too. In that way, it’s even more invaluable.”
She slid the armguard off and tucked it against her side, holding it in place with her elbow. Beneath it, a small dagger in its dark sheath was strapped to her inner arm. The small, smooth hilt shone like mother of pearl. She unbuckled it, ignoring the twang of regret in her chest.
“This was a gift to me from the ryujin.” She pulled the blade from its sheath. Instead of steel, shimmering dragon scale formed a short, lethally sharp blade. “It’s not your pendant and probably not as valuable to you, but it’s rarer than any Ra spell.”
She held it out to Lilith. The succubus accepted it, turning it carefully in her hands. She slid it from the sheath, turning it to watch the light shine across the blade.
“What is this material?” she asked.
“Dragon scale. It will cut through almost any armor, it’s magic resistant, and it can pierce spells and wards.”
Lilith’s gaze rose to Piper, disbelief touching her eyes. The succubus had to appreciate the value of a weapon made by the ryujin—a caste feared throughout the Overworld that typically killed anyone who entered their territory uninvited. Ra spells could be bought but this dagger was truly priceless.
“This was gifted to you?”
Piper knew what Lilith wasn’t saying: How could she offer up such a valuable gift? She smiled as she pulled her armguard back on and laced it up. “The pendant saved my life and Ash’s. Maybe some day that dagger will save yours.”
Lilith’s hand tightened on the sheath. “I haven’t agreed to your favor.”
“I know.”
The succubus relaxed slightly and gestured to the bar, where a few metal stools with cracked leather seats were still standing. “Let’s sit. We will discuss this favor.”
They moved to the chairs and sat, Piper in the middle between Lilith and Calder. Lilith laid the dagger carefully on the bar top as though it might break if she set it down too hard.
“I’m surprised Ash didn’t come with you.” She smiled as she looked up at Piper through her long eyelashes. “He has always been overly confident in his ability to get his way with me.”
Piper gritted her teeth at the double entendre. Though she couldn’t prove it—and really didn’t want to—the circumstantial evidence suggested that Ash had slept with Lilith at least once before he met Piper. She didn’t appreciate Lilith’s reminder or the timing of it. She wondered if, after accepting Piper’s gift, the succubus felt like she had to regain the upper hand in their conversation.
“Ash is busy … preparing.”
Lilith’s eyes sharpened as she dropped the coquettish demeanor. “Preparing for what?”
Piper pressed her folded hands on the bar top. “To end this.”
“To end Samael,” Lilith breathed, her eyes widening as she put the unspoken pieces together. “I see. Tell me about this favor.”
“I need to get a message to Miysis.”
“Miysis? The Ras are little better than Hades. You would have them be our conquerors?”
“I don’t want either of them, but we can only deal with one at a time. The Ras have already lost their heir and they’ve been one step behind Hades for a long time. I’ll take Miysis over Samael any day. Miysis may be ruthless but he isn’t evil. Is he at the embassy?”
“I believe so.” Lilith drummed her fingers on the bar in front of her new dagger, the red polish on her nails chipped and ugly. “Most of my contacts have fled the city. I don’t know how to reach Miysis, not while he is barricaded behind a mass of soldiers in their embassy. With his elder sister dead, he is next in command beneath his mother; he will not be venturing out where Hades snipers could kill him.”
“The Ra family is matriarchal,” Calder put in. “Miysis can’t actually inherit command, can he?”
“He cannot head the family unless his younger sisters also die, but they are safe in the Overworld.” Lilith shrugged lightly. “Though he can’t take his mother’s place, he can still lead beneath her and will continue to do so until his sisters are older.”
Miysis commanding the Ra forces in Brinford was a big help. Piper would only have to convince him and not his mother or some other family member.
“Is there a safe way to approach the embassy?” she asked. “A—a white flag or something?”
“Even if the Ras were willing to let you inside,” Lilith said, “Hades would not allow it. They would kill you on the approach. They
appear to have the embassy surrounded, though one can’t tell at a glance. Too many places for soldiers to hide.”
Piper pressed her hands to the bar top. “I need to speak to him. There has to be a way.”
A soft footstep crunched on the dirty floor behind them.
“I could reach the gates.”
Piper turned sharply. Ether stood with his hands in his pockets, blue eyes drifting between the three of them.
“You—you could?”
He nodded. “I am familiar with the sewers beneath the city. I could get close enough to get within the Hades’ defensive circle and leave a written message for the Ras to find.”
Right, Ether was a kelpie—an amphibious caste. He wouldn’t have any problem in the water, just like her. But she also knew he hated the Ras after they’d held him prisoner in their embassy for weeks. Could she trust him to deliver a message?
“Could you take me?” she asked. “Dropping a note that they may or may not pick up leaves too much to chance and our time is limited.”
“I will not take you,” he said, his soft tone somehow broking no argument. “I will not be responsible for your life.”
“We can make sure they find the note,” Lilith said. “There are spells that turn objects into magical beacons that no daemon within a hundred yards could miss.”
Piper frowned, thinking it over. Dropping a note with some kind of beacon just outside the embassy was probably the best they could do, but what if the Ras assumed it was a Hades trick? What if the note never made it to Miysis? What if it took too long for him to see it and respond?
“Let’s do it,” she said. “We can try to come up with other ideas in the meantime, but whatever we can do now is better than nothing. What should we put the note in? I don’t want it to blow away or something.”
Lilith smiled as she leaned over the bar and reached under it. She pulled out a small, empty vodka bottle and held it up, a wicked little smile tweaking her lips.
“A note in a bottle. That feline curiosity of theirs won’t be able to resist it.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Piper paced the width of the sanctuary and back again, staring down the rows of pews every time she made a turn. Nervous energy kept her moving even though she was exhausted. She hadn’t slept since making the trip from the draconian city to the ley line. She needed to rest, but she couldn’t sleep. Not until she knew whether the note had worked.
It had taken them about an hour to get the note ready and in the bottle, including asking one of the more skilled daemons hiding out in the club basement to spell it so it flashed like an invisible beacon for the Ras to find. Then Ether had taken it and left. Lilith had seemed almost as nervous as Piper as the minutes dragged into an hour and then another. The embassy was on the border of downtown—the opposite border to the Styx—and wasn’t a trip Ether could make that quickly.
Nearly three hours had passed before he returned, reeking water dripping from his clothes onto the floor. He’d thrown the bottle over the embassy fence before getting the hell out of there. He was certain they’d seen it even without the beacon spell. Piper had thanked him profusely and she might have even hugged him if he hadn’t been drenched in sewer water.
With nothing left to do but wait and see if Miysis responded to her note, she and Calder had left to return to the church. On their way out, Piper had glanced back in time to see Lilith take Ether’s hand as she reached up with the other to touch his face in concern. Piper had hurried away, surprised and a little embarrassed. Plain and soft-spoken Ether with the stunning, bold succubus businesswoman? Not a combination she would have predicted, but it explained why Ether was still at the club.
Another three hours had come and gone with no sign of Miysis. Her note had asked him to meet her at the church. She hoped that revealing the hiding place of the “Consul resistance” would convince him that it wasn’t a trick and how imperative it was that he meet with her.
Would he? She’d never been good at predicting his actions, but she was even more out to sea after the complete shattering of their uneasy friendship. After he’d ordered his men to kill Ash and then tried to kidnap her, she’d done her damnedest to kill him on that cliff in the Overworld. After that, she’d killed his sister. If she weren’t so desperate for his help with her plan, she would have been quite happy to never see him again.
Exhaling loudly, she stopped pacing and clenched her hands into fists. “He won’t come. I should have written a longer note.”
“I don’t think he can resist,” Calder said from where he sat on a front pew. “Had you given him too much information, he might have made a decision without talking to you first. On top of that, the two of you have a history. I’m sure he’ll come.”
Unclenching her hands before she strained a muscle, she managed not to flinch. Her father and uncle knew that she and Miysis had last parted on bad terms, but they didn’t know that she’d killed Maasehet. Then again, there was a chance Miysis didn’t know she was responsible either, especially if the Gaian facility had been razed to the ground. She kind of doubted it though. Daemon and haemon magic had different signatures, and the Sahar probably left its own unique mark.
The sound of a door opening made her spin toward the front of the church, but it wasn’t the main entrance. The side door had opened and Randy stood in the threshold, squinting at them. Jerome looked over his shoulder.
“What are you doing up, you two?” Calder asked sternly.
“We heard voices,” Randy said as his eyes landed on Piper. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“You’ve learned to tell time, congratulations,” Piper said, rolling her eyes as her nerves settled again. Stupid Randy showing up and making her think it was Miysis arriving.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” Calder said. “Back to your room, please.”
“Who’s not coming?” Randy asked. “What note were you talking about?”
Calder rose from his seat on the pew. “Consul business, Randy. Back to your room.”
Randy took a couple steps into the room and Jerome followed hesitantly. “Is it that draconian again? We have a right to know if you’re bringing daemons in here while we’re asleep.”
All traces of good humor vanished from Uncle Calder’s face. “You have a right to know whatever I decide to tell you, and right now I have nothing to share with you.”
Quinn turned on the two boys with his glower that could stop daemons in their tracks. Randy and Jerome shrank back.
“If you both aren’t immediately out of my sight, you will—”
In a rush, Melonie and Lee burst out from the same doorway, almost colliding with Randy and Jerome. When they saw Piper, Calder, and Quinn already in the sanctuary, they skidded to a stop. Both had the expressions of frightened rabbits.
“Consul Calder!” Melonie gasped. “There are daemons outside!”
Piper jerked straight. Was it Miysis? Had he come?
“Where?” Calder demanded.
“Everywhere!” Lee blurted. “I heard a noise and looked out the basement window and I saw them. Dozens of them on the lawn. Daemons with—with wings.”
“Griffins,” Piper said, her voice going bleak as she faced the main doors of the church. If the Ras were out of glamour, there was a good chance they hadn’t come peacefully. Crap crap crap. “You four need to go into the basement and stay there.”
Randy spluttered in affront. “Don’t tell me what—”
“Go!” Calder half-shouted. “Right now!”
“But what—”
Magic crackled across Piper’s senses a moment before the arched roof of the church exploded.
A truckload of stone plunged down to the floor in the center of the sanctuary. She staggered back, throwing an arm over her face as dust billowed out. Shadowy figures with outspread wings dropped through the brand new hole, landing among the pews and aisle. As the dust settled, the yellow light bulbs along the sanctuary walls gleamed on a dozen shining halberd blades
.
A thirteenth griffin dropped through the opening to land in the center of the aisle. Golden hair brushed across his face, most of it captured in a thick braid that hung down to his waist. Topaz jewels on fine white gold chains had been woven through the plait, making it glitter. His clothing was a mixture of rich red silks and light armor, as beautiful as it was functional. He held a long sword in one hand.
His eyes, normally a bright yellow-green, were black as pitch as they locked on her like a lion stalking an injured gazelle.
“Miysis.” She couldn’t help the cautious note in his name.
He lifted his blade out to one side of his body, a casual but attack-ready position.
“Piper. Draw your sword.” The words were an icy croon in his melodic voice, almost as beautiful as Lyre’s incubus harmonics.
Oh shit. It was pretty safe to say he knew exactly who had killed his sister and he intended to kill Piper for it in a formal execution of justice.
“Miysis—” she began.
He gave the tip of his sword a little flick—some kind of signal. His soldiers surged into motion, moving blindingly fast. In seconds, they had surrounded her and Miysis, creating a circle around them. She was trapped inside with Miysis, and her father and uncle were stuck outside the circle of warriors. Randy, Jerome, Melonie, and Lee had retreated to the doorway to the basement, but the fools hadn’t actually left.
“Piper!” Calder yelled frantically, rushing toward the Ra soldiers.
“Stay back!” she shouted, throwing up a warning hand in his direction. “Just wait!”
Miysis glided a few steps closer to her, his black eyes not shifting from her face. His golden-brown wings were folded behind his back and his tail, shorter than a draconian’s, swished slowly behind him, the end flaring in a fan of feathers.