XXXVI

The mausoleum was trashed. Condom wrappers, crack pipes, and other paraphernalia littered the ground. Between that garbage, rot and decay filled the cracks of once elaborate tiles. Graffiti symbols arched wildly across the marble walls like scars.

Mausoleums were notorious for their meticulously clean appearance. The fact that this place was so ruined made me feel sad. I imagined the thousands of bodies crammed like sardines throughout this castle-like structure and became furious that this was what had become of the dead's sanctuary.

Malphas walked ahead of us, the line of his leash coiled tightly around my hand. He moved with a swagger, like he didn't have a care in the world, whereas Death was practically foaming at the mouth. Nothing says family reunion quite like an estranged homicidal demigod father and his hybrid monster son coming together.

"So," I began, attempting to break the incredibly uncomfortable silence. "This probably isn't the time, but I've always wondered . . . Do you guys ever pee?"

Neither of them responded.

I wouldn't let this go. "Because I haven't seen a single immortal drink a whole glass of water."

Death slowly inhaled through his nose, as if he wanted to duct tape my mouth shut and bind my hands together before tossing me helplessly into the ocean. Either that or he'd gotten bored with being undead and had taken a random mortal-like breath.

I shuffled a little faster to walk beside Malphas. It wasn't like he could do much to hurt me.

"Dehydration is a silent killer, you know."

Malphas gave me a strong "go away" side-eye. "We don't need water to nourish our bodies," he replied, surprisingly answering my first question. "If we consume water or mortal food, then yes, we'd have to use the restroom afterward."

"Interesting," I said, tapping my chin. "Very interesting. Even number two?"

Death hooked a finger into the pocket of my pants and yanked me back to walk beside him. Malphas's steps faltered a little as his line cut short.

Cut it out , Death mouthed, his eyes beseeching me to stop.

Then Malphas held up a hand, and we did stop. He turned his head over his shoulder and nodded to Death.

Frowning at what appeared to be a signal, Death stalked forward and shifted into predator mode. He slowly slid two swords out from the sheaths at his back. Powerful muscles tensed as he slunk past us to glide into the shadows. He pressed up against the wall beside an archway, his brilliant mismatched green eyes the only indication that he was there. He closed them and blended perfectly into the dark like an assassin.

Two vampires in armor rounded the hallway. Malphas moved to stand in front of me.

Death's skilled hands were already twisting each blade around his fingers in a mirrored motion, his arms coming down fast and hard to flawlessly sever each vampire's neck.

Another vampire launched out from behind him, but Death spun one blade backward in his palm and brought his arm up, stabbing the vampire through the throat. Death turned toward the creature and ripped the blade through the rest of the tendons of the newborn's neck, its head dropping amongst the growing pile.

"Adequate," Malphas commented.

Death's lip lifted in a snarl. "Adequate?"

Shadows collected from the darkest corners of the room, crawling toward Death like creatures on all fours. They curled up his frame and formed a menacing aura around his silhouette.

Death dropped his swords and pivoted, sprinting toward the entryway and launching himself at four more vampires that had reached the scene. His talons lashed out, slicing through an enemy's torso. When his fist drove through the chest of another, he walked forward with the vampire in his clutches and stalked somewhere out of view. Screams were heard. A chunk of flesh or an organ flew across the hall and smacked a vampire right in the face.

The vampires came sprinting in a panic through the archway toward Malphas and me like the T-Rex chase scene from Jurassic Park . Their clothes were mangled and covered in blood, and they clutched at their injured body parts. Death gripped the archway behind them and swung back into the hallway, landing on both vampires before they could reach us, his fangs bared. He crushed the backs of their skulls into the ground with his bare hands.

Awesome . And disgusting .

Death collected his fallen swords and rose to his full height, tossing a strand of black hair from his forehead. He stared icily at his father.

Malphas hummed and then picked at a piece of imaginary lint on his shirt. Looked like Death had successfully vanquished his father's criticism.

Moments later, the three of us stood in a passageway that opened onto a wider space with high ceilings. Pentagrams and hexagrams with symbols and languages I didn't understand covered almost every surface. The air was thicker in here, electric. Like rubbing a balloon vigorously against your skin and creating static. An eerie sensation clung to me from all directions, almost as if the walls had eyes.

"This room is giving me the heebie-jeebies," I said. "Is it hard to breathe, or is it just me?"

"Just you, cupcake," Death said.

Malphas lowered to the ground, his hand hovering outside the intricate lines of the pentagram design in front of him. His pale fingers tensed, the blackness along his fingertips crawling down the back of his hands. Smoke levitated from the lines engraved into the marble floor, and when Malphas looked over his shoulder, black branches webbed from his eyes and extended across his pale features like poisoned veins.

"The Seal of Solomon," Malphas said. "Ahrimad must have summoned this from the Underworld. I imagine a summoning spell like this would severely weaken him in his current state."

"You seem surprised," Death spat.

"As I've told your little girlfriend, I haven't been kept in the loop."

"You're Ahrimad's second-in-command. The reason I lost my goddamn scythe. You're telling me you haven't been kept in his loop?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you. For the record, you lost your scythe because you were too busy doting on a temporary mortal. Old habits die hard, I suppose."

Death lunged for his father and knocked him hard to the ground. Malphas's leash went flying out of my hand as he nearly pulled me down with him.

"Hey!" I cried.

"What game are you playing at?" Death snarled, his hand wrapped in his father's shirt. "I'll give you five fucking seconds, and then I'm tearing your head off."

Malphas said nothing. Revealed nothing. The raven demigod's face flattened to an unnerving blank slate, but his jaw was clenched so tight that I could have sworn I heard molars grinding.

"Death." I gripped Death's arm, his flesh scorching to the touch. "He's not worth it, and he's our bait." I pointed at the pentagram, desperate to get him to calm down. "Why don't you tell me what a Seal of Solomon is?"

"It's a way to summon powerful demons," Death answered gruffly. He released Malphas's collar with a shove and stalked around the room. At every pentagram, he methodically checked it by tracing the design with his fingertips.

"You said Ahrimad was weakened," Death snarled at Malphas.

"Because he is ," the raven demigod said. "He's not corporeal like you or me. It's why he must hold the blade so often."

Death and Malphas exchanged a long look, as if they had carried their conversation into a mental argument.

"Can someone explain to me what the hell is going on?" I asked. "High-energy demon sounds a little concerning."

"There are fifteen different pentagrams in here," Death said. "We've only entered one room. Corporeal or not, Ahrimad is anything but weak. Consider the graveyard a smokescreen."

Malphas nodded once. "You'll need more men."

Why did it suddenly seem like Malphas was aiding us?

Death stalked away toward another doorway, but Malphas slunk into his path. "You're hardly prepared for what this room alone forebodes. The vast knowledge and capabilities of Ahrimad's soul are unfathomable."

"I know," Death snarled. "He's the first and only pureblood of his kind."

"Which would make him a Prime," Malphas continued. "The apex predator of his own species." Malphas glanced at me in an odd manner, as if to try to gain my support, before returning his attention to Death. "You're weak. Weaker than you've ever been. Your control over your other half is dwindling. Tonight is your last opportunity to get back to your full power. You need to keep it together, control your feelings, and request more men."

"Get out of my head," Death grated.

"I'm not in your head. I can sense this in other ways."

"Why the hell are you giving me advice?"

"Because I'm your father."

"You are not a father," Death hissed. "You don't give a shit about me, and you never have."

Thunder crashed above us, the stained glass ceiling flashing with light. The sigil beneath Malphas and Death glowed red, plumes of smoke spiraling in the air around them. Both of their heads snapped back, their eyes matching the inflamed bloodred color of the sigil.

"Ohhhhh no," I said, holding my palms up to protect my face from the heat of the sigil as it burst outward with a hiss. "Ohnonononono!"

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't cast my soul into Limbo!" Death suddenly exploded. "You turned on your own family again, like the psychopath that you are!"

This was bad. This was really, really bad. As their anger rose, wind swirled around the space. I gripped a marble structure, my mind frantically racing to find a way to free them from whatever spell they were under.

"If you hadn't been so hell-bent on defying me as a child," Malphas roared in a fiery rage, "with your obsession with befriending the very mortals that ostracize our kind, you would never have encountered Ahrimad to begin with!"

"I went into those woods in the first place to get away from you !" Death roared, and the sigil flickered angrily around the edges. "So I could cling to the sliver of normalcy that you left me as a child. The only thing that kept me alive after what you did to my family was the damned immortality Ahrimad gave me."

Malphas flinched at this, the red glow to his eyes faltering briefly with emotion. "You have no idea the sacrifices I made for you, Alexandru. I was trapped in the Underworld for two thousand years , while you've paraded around with Lucifer like a king."

The two charged at each other, the sigil walls distorting their forms into shadows as the flames rose higher and surged outward again. I reeled back before I got burned. They would fight to the death like this if I couldn't snap them out of it. However, I was worried that my light would absorb into the sigil like a sponge or make things worse.

Crawling on the ground, I found a fallen vase amongst the rubble on the floor. I wrapped a fist around the base and managed to climb up to my feet, the wind hurling my braid to the side as I chucked the vase at the sigil. Energy surged from my hand to the vase as it pitched from my palm, forming a grenade of sorts. It shattered into a million pieces on impact and exploded against the sigil. I shielded my eyes as a burst of energy ricocheted back at me, slamming me into the wall.

I blinked away black splotches, the storm calming. Malphas came into focus at the center of the sigil. He stood in a wide stance, staggering, his black eyes wide and crazed. A brutal slice from a talon marred his pale cheek. Oily black blood dripped down his neck to the floor as he looked down at his bare wrists. He no longer wore the cuffs that had bound his power.

And Death was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" I demanded. "Where's Death?"

Malphas's coal-black eyes darted around the room, as if he'd woken from a dream.

"Damn it!" He crossed the sigil in a quick stride and dragged his dress shoe across the marking, smearing the lines. His lifted his palms out in front of him and commanded, "Revelare!"

My eyes widened at the sight of a feminine creature with bat-like wings who appeared from nothing at the center of the room. White hair framed a small face half covered by a silky scarf, drawing attention to her lustful gaze. Her small, ballerina-like figure was clothed in elaborate gold material that covered only her private parts.

"Oh," I said, uncomfortable with her lack of clothing, "hello."

"Don't talk to it," Malphas hissed, his livid gaze unwavering against the demon's.

"Goodbye," I said quickly.

"Goodbye, blue-eyed bimbo," the creature purred in a thick accent.

Malphas stalked toward me. "Give me your sword. Now ."

I touched the hilt of my blade protectively. The weapon I realized I hadn't reached for once that night. "Why? So you can make me disappear too? Where the hell is Death?"

"We will deal with that after this," Malphas said, his gaze locked on the creature. "This is a high-level empath demon. Death and I were fevered by her power. He must have shifted elsewhere in the mausoleum. I assume he is taking longer to shake off the effects because he's weakened. He could be delusional. More reason to give me your sword —"

The beautiful creature lunged forward and hissed something in a language that sounded quite rude. The fabric over her face shifted around as she screamed, and I started to get the sick feeling in my stomach that the scarf was hiding something I did not want to see.

Three more she-demons crawled down the side of the room like spiders, their long fingers stabbing into the marble like it was made of papier-maché, anchoring them to the wall. Malphas grabbed the back of my hood and yanked me behind him as the demons flipped upright onto the floor beside us, bloodred eyes flickering like flames. The one in the middle appeared the most confident, the leader.

"Malphas," the golden demon drawled, her accent matching the other, more deranged demon. " Magna praeses inferos . Do my eyes deceive me? The last time I saw you, you left me in an empty bed and never called."

"Layla," Malphas replied with a nod.

"Yikes," I said. "Ex-girlfriend?"

"Silence," Layla snarled, her voice vibrating the magic in the air. "Stupid blue-eyed bimbo!"

The nameless demon with the cloth over her mouth laughed.

I fisted my hands, heat centering in my palm. I had no idea what these creatures were capable of, but apparently, Malphas did. He stood in a protective stance in front of me. Or maybe, I thought, as I slid my hand possessively over the harness at my side, he was just protecting the book.

Layla strutted closer to Malphas, her hips rocking side to side seductively as she walked. The fabric over her groin barely covered what it was supposed to—if it was even supposed to.

"Yes, I remember that handsome face in the Underworld," she purred. "So much sadness behind that cold, stoic face. Everyone wondered if you had been summoned to Earth or if you had escaped. How did you do it?"

"I'm a walking enigma," Malphas said dryly.

"I am enslaved to my new master, Ahrimad," Layla said. "He ordered me to destroy whoever crosses into this room. It's nothing personal." She put her hands on her narrow waist. "I promise to make your demise as painless as possible, for an old friend. If you tell me what you offered Hades to free yourself."

"As much as I appreciate such a kind offer"—one of Malphas's hands, which was clasped with the other behind his back, reached blindly behind him and gripped the hilt of the sword at my hip—"I'm going to have to decline. And, as the mortals say, ‘Go fuck yourself.'"

One of the demons sprang forward with her blade drawn. Malphas's nails ripped my sword and its scabbard straight from my belt. The sword turned over in his hand in a whirl of motion before his other hand joined on the hilt. His whole body moved with the violent action as he evaded the empath's attack and arced the blade upward, slicing through her heart. Another swift movement of his hands and her head was severed clean, smacking against the ground with a wet thud.

"Sister!" Layla screamed. The crippling grief on her face vanished, traded instantly for vengeance. Her hands spread out, and she chanted quickly.

My vision swam as the air thickened with magic. Multiple sigils on the floor glowed red. Air heaved like a mighty hurricane as it had before, and I planted my feet wide to stay balanced. "Can't we ever catch a break?"

"She's cocooned herself in magic to summon the rest of her sisters!" Malphas shouted over the looming chaos. He tilted his head down to me. "Go! Find Death!"

I couldn't help but think that I was leaving Malphas to die. I also couldn't help but think that he had a greater part in all of this. If I never saw Malphas again, I needed to know if my gut feeling held any truth at all.

"Is it true?" I demanded. "Did you kill his family?"

The frantic darkness in Malphas's eyes seemed to settle, like black stone lying at the bottom of a river. In a heart-stopping moment, he handed me back my bloody sword. "I have done unspeakable things in this world that have left me entrenched in sin, but my greatest offence is my most painful secret. A secret that I will take to the grave. You must discover these answers on your own."

My breath caught in my throat. The same answer as the one he'd given me in the projection with the willow tree, verbatim. Like a broken record.

I was struck by the eerie possibility that he couldn't answer my question.

The raven demigod stepped into Layla's chaos, a blurred figure amidst a whirlwind of red mist. She released a shrill shriek from her magical freaky butterfly cocoon, and the marble crumbled. Pieces from the ceiling came loose and hit the ground in an explosion of debris. I pivoted and committed to my escape from the sigil room, sprinting down another hallway. When I looked over my shoulder, the archway behind me had crumbled, blocked by debris. The sigil room had buckled in on itself.

I turned and kicked into a run, tears blurring my vision. Where was Death? When I turned another corner, I crashed into somebody, and Master Vampire Duncan slammed into sharp focus.

He held some sort of weapon. I saw the flash of Ace's cane in his fist as he punched it hard into my gut. It knocked the wind right out of me, the momentum sending me flying backward until I landed on the marble floor.

"Going somewhere, bitch?"

Adrenaline fired as Duncan kept coming at me. I struggled to catch my breath as I clutched my stomach and crawled backward. His hand gripped me around the throat, faster than the newborns in the graveyard, and plucked me straight up off the ground. With no ability to cry out, I stayed silent as Duncan slammed me against the wall. I pictured all his newborns we'd destroyed as his nails dug into my throat. I tried to writhe out of his grasp, blood dripping down my neck.

"I see you managed to get past the summoning room," he breathed into my face. "Ahrimad wanted you alive, but I don't care what that old bag of bones wants anymore. I'd rather dump your dismantled body right in front of the Prince of Darkness—"

Duncan's whole body tensed, a strangled gasp escaping his mouth. Realizing he was immobilized, I pried his hands off me and ripped free. Duncan remained locked in a rigid position, his silvery eyes wide with shock. Tendrils of color surrounded his body like chains.

"Warlock," Duncan hissed.

I lifted my gaze down the hallway, and my heart plunged at the sight of Ace. He stood with his free hand casually outstretched toward Duncan. The elegant, Victorian-style outfit he'd been wearing earlier at his library was torn, exposing bite marks and cuts all over his body. His once beautiful shoulder-length hair had been shaved down to the white roots, and blood, vivid red against his pallid skin, dripped down his forehead from an open gash.

"Ace!"

"Look at you, you crippled fuck," Duncan laughed, blood seeping out the corners of his mouth as he remained unable to move. "My newborns really did you in. And your poor little pixie pet. I heard she was ripped apart in seconds."

My heart plunged. Trixie. She was dead.

Ace's face trembled with rage, his violet eyes glowing neon and crackling with electricity.

"Kill me now, and your pledge of passivity is over," Duncan said, grinning wider. "You'll no longer be a neutral force. The title you've worked centuries for—"

Ace crushed his hand into a fist, and the indentation of his fingers engraved Duncan's neck. "Morior!"

Duncan released a horrific scream. Veins swelled in his face, and a wheeze emptied his lungs as blood vessels exploded beneath his skin. His eyes bulged out of his head. I turned my head away; the sound of Duncan's eyeballs exploding made an involuntary noise of shock escape my mouth. Still, I peered back—I had to. Duncan's skin melted off his body like wax sliding down a burning candle. His corpse collapsed in a pile of sludge and bones.

I looked up at Ace in quiet horror. I'd seen plenty of gruesome deaths that night, but that one took the cake. He didn't look proud of what he'd done, but he didn't look regretful either.

Ace limped to the pile of gore on the floor and picked up his cane.

"Have you seen Death?" I asked.

"I believe I have," Ace replied. "He wasn't himself, though."

"We were supposed to meet the reapers and Death's Fallen in a different part of the mausoleum. Death and I entered another way. We were using Malphas as bait, but then—"

"Malphas?" Ace's full attention snapped to me. "Malphas Cruscellio?"

"Do you know anybody else on the planet with that name?" I joked. "I know you can't talk about your vision anymore, but I can't shake this feeling that Malphas has a bigger part in all of this. Especially with the riddle he keeps repeating—"

Ace seized my arm in an iron grip. " What riddle?"

My attention clung to Ace's fingers around my wrist. He'd touched only a sliver of my skin, and cold speared through me like frostbite. My heart rocketed into overdrive.

I wrenched my arm free and stepped back. "You're not Ace."

Ace appeared puzzled a moment longer.

Then he straightened, his entire affect changing in an instant.

"Your power is stronger, Chosen," the impostor said, taking a confident step toward me as I took another backward. "Ace put up an honorable fight against me. But after he watched the consequence of refusing me, his lover brutally torn apart, well . . . " His slow smirk brought chills down my spine. "He ultimately succumbed to my will."

I could hear the tremor in my voice as I whispered, "Ahrimad."

Ace's violet eyes clung to the torn part of my belt. "You're just in time for the show." His hand rose toward me. "Somnus."

The command shot out like gunfire, a gust of magic blasting out and knocking me from consciousness.