Blackhearted Betrayal (20 page)

Ripples swirled across the pool with steadily increasing frequency until, all at once, that magical link
clicked
into place. Black-and-silver light flowed across the now-still waters and stretched toward Sahana as if the combined Death and immortal magic had a mind of its own.
Stranger things have happened,
I reminded myself, then stepped forward when a familiar face appeared in the water. Ala.

She frowned when she recognized me and gestured to someone behind her. “Clear the room!” Footsteps against stone heralded several someones complying with her order before she spoke again. “Have you succeeded already?”

If only!
“Not entirely, Your Grace, although circumstances indicate we are very near that point. As I’m sure you can tell, I have journeyed to Duat in Nemesis form and found proof that Anubis has at least two Fury shades in his service—which means he must have sworn them to himself
before
their deaths. Additionally, I found the missing priests you mentioned. Anubis imprisoned them when they came to investigate the missing portals, and he forced them to transmute souls loyal to him into the bodies of still-living arcanes.” I motioned, and Nan stepped up beside me. “Including the body of Maeve Holloway, my grandmother. Her sister, Medea, now possesses control of her body although two of Imseti’s priests have promised to restore her should that prove possible.”

Ala’s silver-rimmed eyes flashed with growing anger at each revelation. “He
dares
not only to swear Furies to his service, but also commit sacrilege against other deities? Abducts their priests; forces souls out of their rightful bodies so he can replace them with—with Anubian filth?” She spat into the mirror—which was fortunately not yet rigged up for physical travel.

“There’s more, Your Grace. I interrogated one of his shades, and she claimed that he isn’t planning a coup against the Triad; rather, it appears he seeks to consolidate more power so he can make the leap from lesser god to greater.”

“If not to overthrow the Triad, then for what purpose?”

I cleared my throat and decided there really wasn’t a
delicate
way to put the truth. “To become powerful enough to attract the full-time interest of his—ah, lover.”

Funny how distinctly unsurprised she appeared in comparison to some of the previous revelations. I had to wonder what sorts of things
she
had done in the name of love—or Kamanu had done for her. Somehow it just seemed wrong that immortals would be as driven by base instincts as we mere mortals and arcanes, but I wasn’t exactly willing to take up residence in glass houses anytime soon.

Several tense moments passed before she spoke again. “No matter the reason, he has clearly violated not just one, but several immortal laws. Have you shared this news with anyone else?”

I shook my head. “We’re trying to keep as low a profile as possible. Your territory seemed the easiest to reach with this news. I was hoping you could help us pass word on to my mother in the Palladium as well. She needs to know about my grandmother’s sister so she can better be prepared to apprehend her.”

“You may tell her about your grandmother, but it seems unwise to spread anything else via portal until you have concrete proof. Something you now have less than forty-eight hours to accomplish.”

Hearing her say it out loud like that made me want to break out in hives, so I did the only thing I could: ignore the obvious jibe. “May these priests have safe passage through your territory as well?”

Her eyes snapped with fire, but the smile that spread across her face indicated my audacity amused rather than annoyed her. “How could I refuse priests who serve another Death Lord loyal to the Triad? Send them
through once you speak with your mother. And obtain that proof quickly, Nemesis, lest we lose your services just when you were proving yourself useful.”

Wow, did she really just
compliment
me?

Don’t let it go to your head. You could still crash and burn ingloriously.
Trust Nike to keep me humble.

Ala’s image disappeared, and black-and-silver light washed across the pool’s still waters once more. Mom’s surprised face stared out at me several moments later, flanked on one side by Adesina and Ekaterina on the other. Odd, only Mom wore Nemesis form; Adesina stood in red leather uniform with typical green serpent tattoos on each arm. I made the logical assumption that Mom’s wearing Nemesis form in front of our favorite Tisiphone to hate meant she’d decided she could be trusted. Ironic when
she
numbered on the very short list of Furies to Be Trusted.

I didn’t waste time with pleasantries, simply filling them in on an accelerated version of what had gone down since I’d seen them last. Mom’s eyes shone with triumph when I stepped aside to reveal Nan’s shade standing behind me.

“I
knew
that wasn’t you!”

Nan gave her a smile every bit as approving as the one she’d earlier beamed my way. “Of course you did.”

They refrained from indulging in a more sentimental greeting, but the way their eyes drank in the sight of each other spoke volumes. I couldn’t hold back a smile. Ekaterina, on the other hand, suffered from nothing so plebeian as
sentimentality
. “We plan to meet with certain sisters of the Alecto persuasion later today.”

I took that to mean they’d been able to make contact with the Alecto Prime as the Triad had instructed.
“Perfect. Hopefully there’s a logical explanation for why
she
stopped answering the Triad’s summons.”

The Moerae’s twisted lips indicated she highly doubted that but didn’t care enough to argue the point out loud. Typical. She hated being gainsaid even more than—well, me. “To make matters worse, we also suspect that an imposter is posing as our own Prime, which explains why
she
fell out of contact with the Triad.”

Sorrow washed over me at that thought. Our Prime was one of the most respected—and eldest—Furies in the Sisterhood. For an imposter to be successfully masquerading as her could mean only one thing. She was dead.

Mom leaned forward suddenly. The portal couldn’t transport her body in its current form, but it
did
magnify her face as if she’d pressed it directly against a camera lens. “I thought you should know that I contacted Serise to ask if she might be willing to safeguard Cori again until we can bring her back to swear to the Sisterhood.” The plan had been for her and Adesina to exchange their hostages when they first returned to the Palladium, then send Cori somewhere safe. “Or rather I should say,
tried
to contact her.”

I frowned. “Well, she
is
drawing near to her delivery time. Maybe she went to an Oracl—”

Mom shook her head with migraine-inducing force. “No. I spoke with her new second, who indicated Serise simply vanished a few hours ago. Zoline was concerned enough to share that her Queen made arrangements with Gianna and Eugenie to help with the delivery and told me neither had heard from Serise today. Besides which, she left Rinda behind.”

That
news had my mouth drawing into a very large
O
shape. Rinda was another modern-day miracle who
unfortunately owed her existence to my psycho former mentor: the world’s first biologically
born
Harpy. Harpies were generally only created when a Fury gave into Rage and lost every single one of her marbles, slaughtering her Amphisbaena and turning into an unrecognizable version of her former self. Cats feared having their tongues cut out and replaced with catnip; a Fury’s worst nightmare was Turning Harpy.

The Harpies prized Rinda even more than any other race treasured its young—
especially
Serise, who loved her infant daughter dearly, inasmuch as a Harpy was capable of love. She would
never
have abandoned Rinda willingly; no more than I would abandon Rinda’s half sister, Olivia, who shared the same unknown Hound father as the Harpy child.

Realization had my blood going cold. The timing once again worked too perfectly. “They snatched her and probably brought her here.”

Mom’s gaze sharpened. “To Duat? But why would they bring
her
there?”

I gave her a sardonic eyebrow raise. “Have you forgotten how very hard Stacia worked to become Queen of the Harpies? Now that her lover has a new body, she’s going to want one of her own.”

Nan let out a vicious curse. “If this Serise is the new Harpy Queen”—Calaeno had held that distinction before Nan slipped into her coma, until Stacia had mowed her down in cold blood—“you’re absolutely right. She’d make the perfect transmutation victim for that bitch. From everything I’ve seen, Anubis’s priests find it easier to force souls out of their rightful bodies here in his realm, which is why it took them so long to knock me out of
mine
in the living realms.”

Mom nodded. “Logical. We can assume that Stacia’s first decree as Harpy Queen will be to throw in with Medea and
her
sycophants to further whatever scheme Anubis is working on. It would be a
disaster
.”

Yeah, like I didn’t have enough pressure already. Speaking of which, my unfulfilled Mandate chose that moment to send bursts of pain radiating throughout my body. Mom’s suddenly gritted teeth mirrored my own grunt although Adesina’s serene image on the other end of the portal indicated she had a higher pain tolerance than either of us.

Durra let out a vexed noise that sounded almost pained and stomped her foot. “We need to
act
rather than gossiping foolishly. Time to send the priests through and get
on
with the rest of our mission.”

Unexpected outburst aside, she had a point, especially considering that the longer we kept the portal open, the greater the chance that Anubis would commandeer our link so he could send his forces through. “I doubt we’ll get another chance to contact you before we reach the Hall.”

Mom nodded. “Good luck and be careful.” She didn’t need to remind me that the successful completion of our joint Mandate now fell mostly upon my leather-clad shoulders. We both knew that and knew also that I would do everything in my power to see it through. For all my faults—which were legion—I never gave up once I’d made a vow. Anubis was
so
going down, even if I had to die trying, which might very well happen if I couldn’t invoke the Feather before my quickly ticking hours ran out.

I gestured to Sahana, who worked her mojo (with Ala’s help) to transform the speaking portal into one fit
for travel. Mijai and the Seer arranged their group into an orderly line that began filing into the pool-turned-portal. The tension gripping my body faded a little more each time another black-robed figure took the plunge, which was, of course, when all hell broke loose. There was little warning. One moment a priest stepped toward the portal, and the next he collapsed into churning water with a high-pitched scream. Black-and-silver energy rolled across the pond as our portal collapsed and a new one began to form. The priest’s cries choked off suddenly, signaling an end to his suffering, which was confirmed when a dull-colored figure stepped away from the underwater corpse. His shade, prevented from materializing where it should by Anubis’s foul magic.

A magic that would shortly turn on the rest of us, too.
Shit!
No way I could destroy
this
portal the way I had the previous. It wasn’t an actual mirror I could shatter. “Kill the portal!” I screamed to Sahana while at the same time shoving the two remaining priests back toward their superiors.

“I’m trying to!” she yelled back. “Whoever’s running it is
way
stronger than I.”

Anubis, then. My heart dropped to the bottom of my feet. The people around me were
so
screwed once this new portal snapped into place.
I
had nothing to worry about—other than the horror of watching every person around me be cut down one after another since Anubis would be smart enough not to mess around this time. He’d send wave after wave of attackers through the—

Waves! That’s it.

“Everyone into the pool. Splash around as much as you can.”

Mijai shot me an incredulous look. “Are you insane? That thing just
killed
one of us!”

Scott and Sahana caught on right away, leaping forward along with me and splashing for all they were worth. Elliana turned on the Imsetians and started pushing them into the water. “She’s right! Disturb the water’s surface enough, and the portal won’t be able to solidify.”

At that pronouncement, everyone else jumped in and spread out, kicking and churning the water for all they were worth. We looked ridiculous, but more importantly, it worked. As much black-and-silver energy that poured along the pool’s surface, it still could
not
get a solid enough grip for the portal to form. Not that Anubis gave up right away or for the next ten minutes, during which time Sahana siphoned off his stray Death magic so it couldn’t hurt anyone else. By the time he
did
give up, our kicks and splashes were much more halfhearted and clumsy—though no less effective. Finally, magic dissipated and we could take a breather, all still standing
inside
the pool, except for the newborn shade, who wandered around us with a lost look on his face. Poor bastard.

“He’ll try again when he thinks we’ve let our guard down.” Elliana, as matter-of-fact as always. And, as a
former
Anubian handmaiden,
she
would know.