XXXVII

Dim light from a filthy lightbulb filtered through the metal bars and lit the confined space. With barely enough room to stand, I felt as if I were sitting in large coffin with jail bars for walls. Beside my claustrophobic cell was another.

Pure dread speared through me as I noticed another person behind the barrier of metal bars. Edging closer confirmed my assumption—it was Ace. He was so still, lying face down with his head angled away from me. I crawled across the space, my body aching with every movement I made.

"Ace?" I whispered. I fought not to burst into tears. I pictured his wounds, his tattered clothing, and my heart clenched. The thought crossed my mind that Ahrimad might have continued to possess his body, so I reached out and shook his arm. No sensation of coldness. "Ace? Ace, wake up. Please, wake up."

He inhaled a horrible, wheezed breath and coughed, blowing dust all over the tiny space.

"Oh, thank God—"

"No!" Ace's chest heaved faster and faster into hyperventilation, his nails raking against the dirty marble beneath us.

"Ace it's me, it's me," I said quietly, clutching his hand. "Everything's okay. It's Faith."

"Ma chérie," he croaked in a parched voice. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," I whispered. "I think we're underground. Maybe underneath the mausoleum?"

Ace heaved a few times. "I'm going to . . . sick." He crawled to the furthest corner of his tiny prison to vomit.

"What can I do to help?"

He slumped against the wall in exhaustion with his arm sprawled over his stomach. "I could really use a power nap, and maybe an ice cream sundae."

"Ace . . . " I trailed off. "Ahrimad, he possessed your body—"

"Oh, I know. He's gone now. Hence the retching and the unbearable headache."

We stared at each other for a moment.

"It happened so fast," Ace began in a quiet, tired voice. "We were disagreeing, Trixie and I. Shouting at each other like an old married couple over something stupid." He shut his eyes. "They breached the ward at the Crossroads and ambushed us . . . tortured us. I told them that if they let Trixie live, I would concede and serve Ahrimad." His hand tightened around mine as a tear trailed down his bloody cheek. "They tore her apart in seconds anyway. Because of me . . . "

"It's not your fault, Ace," I said softly, feeling the heaviness of his sorrow was if it were my own. "I'm so sorry this happened."

"Me too, ma chérie . Me too." Ace took a moment to collect himself. "We need an escape plan."

"Agreed." I moved toward the bars and peered out into the shadowy space in front of our cells. Angling my head to the left revealed a long hallway with another dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling at the end. "Without Death, or his reapers, or Malphas, I don't know how far we could get, but it's worth a try."

Ace's gaze snapped to me in the dark as if something had been slow to register. "Did you say Malphas ? Malphas Cruscellio?"

"Why does everybody have that same reaction whenever I say Malphas?"

"Why would Malphas help us escape?" Ace inquired.

"We entered the mausoleum together," I said. "Me, Death, and Malphas. I managed to get these magical cuffs on Malphas's wrists and contained his power. We were going to use him as bait, but then we were in a room of sigils, and Death and Malphas were fevered by empath demons."

"Empath demons. You weren't affected by their power?"

"Only Death and Malphas, who were standing within this huge sigil. When the sigil's energy died down, Death was gone. Which left Malphas and me to defend ourselves. He no longer had the cuffs on, but he didn't try to hurt me. Instead, he told me to go look for Death and gave me back my sword . . . "

I sat back on my heels and froze. In the sigil room, Malphas's hand behind his back hadn't just rested on the hilt of my sword. It'd rested on the sheath that concealed the Book of the Dead . . .

"Oh my God."

Panic clicked into place as I rapidly felt around my belt, patting down my armor. The full reality of what this meant was too overwhelming, and blood whooshed in my ears.

Malphas had the Book of the Dead .

My mind whirled.

"We are so screwed," I said. "I almost trusted Malphas. I almost trusted him when nobody else did. How could I be so stupid?"

"This is not your fault, ma chérie . He's a formidable demigod of manipulation."

But the projection , I thought to myself. Was that really all a lie?

I remembered Ahrimad's surprised reaction when I'd mentioned Malphas was in the mausoleum. Ahrimad's slight smile when he'd glanced down at my waist, where my broken belt remained.

Was it still possible Malphas was working against Ahrimad? Would he use the Book of the Dead for his own gain?

I'd asked Malphas point-blank if he'd killed Death's family, and he'd gotten that weird, dead look in his eyes. It had been like he was incapable of answering. I'd thought it was possible he was bound to some sort of deal or spell.

Now I knew the truth. Malphas was evil to the core.

"My main concern lies with the Fates and the consequences of how I've interfered already," Ace said. "This was not supposed to happen to me, Faith. Or to Trixie."

"We can't sit here in this shitty cage and wait to be used again. Then Trixie's death will have been for nothing."

Ace ran his hand over his short hair. "I'm too depleted of energy from Ahrimad to get us out of here. I'll need my staff to channel anything significant. You, on the other hand, might be able to quietly—"

I gripped two of the cage bars in front of me, and some sort of magic electrified my hand. It twisted around my fingers like thorns, but I only gripped the bars harder.

Break! I punched my hands forward, my fingers igniting the entire metal frame as the bars of my cage blew off. The frame clattered against the wall and floor in fragments. Heaving in air, I crawled out of the small space.

I held out my hand toward Ace's bars. "Back up."

Ace pressed against the corner of his cell. Light blasted from my hand, destroying a portion of the cell.

The warlock exited his cell with a proud smile. "Incredible, ma chérie . But perhaps it would be best to practice subtlety next time?"

"I can't help it," I said, my fingertips still sparking at my sides. "I'm furious. And I'm done running from destiny. It's time to face it head-on."

Ace and I edged down another long, dim passageway and reached a crossroad where we had to decide left or right. Ace leaned against the wall to give his leg a break.

"I'm so sick of this leg," Ace grumbled. The sweat on his brow and his pale complexion concerned me.

"Maybe you find a place to hide and rest," I suggested, even though the thought of being left alone in this place was the most frightening thing I could imagine at the moment. "Let me go ahead."

The air visibly rippled around us.

"Did you see that?" Ace asked, turning to face me.

"Yes. The same thing happened earlier when we first entered the mausoleum."

"Ahrimad must have opened a portal. A large one."

"Big enough for an army," I whispered.

The trepidation of arriving at that portal without Death made me sick to my stomach. Where was he?

As if reading my thoughts, Ace smoothed down the back of my braid with his hand. "You've made it this far. You must stay strong. For all of us."

We were walking together down another hallway when a trapdoor beneath us blew open, and we fell into a chamber, hitting a slope that slid us down into the dusty depths of an even lower level. We sprawled across the floor. Ace processed what was happening faster and grabbed my bicep. He rose with me quickly as a group of monstrous creatures encircled us. Faceless creatures with reflective skin like mirrors and wiry, distorted frames.

My mind harkened back to the projection with Malphas and the creature that had almost killed me, fear overtaking my senses. "What the hell are these things? Demons?"

"Worse," Ace whispered with dread. "They're Forsaken."

One of the creatures leaned into me with a low noise rattling its throat. I trembled violently as its frightening, reflective face hovered beside mine.

"What do we do?"

"You give up," said a female voice.

Layla. The empath demon from the sigil room.

The Forsaken backed away from us.

Layla flipped her hair over her bare shoulder and posed with her hand on her hip. "Hello, hello," she greeted, her stare lingering on Ace as she studied him with interest before darting her red gaze to me. "Night not going as planned?"

The mocking tone in her voice set me off. Ace fired a warning look in my direction and clutched my wrist.

She hooked her talon-like nails into Ace's shirt and kissed him hard on the mouth.

"Ace!" I screamed.

The Forsaken howled. Red plumes expelled from Layla's pores and seeped into Ace's skin like a poison. His violet eyes widened, his palms trying to push her away as the kiss continued. A dreamy look overrode his features. The plumes of smoke tainted his irises from the inside, turning them a bright red. She pulled back.

"He tastes like grief," she purred. "It's a shame I can't torture him like I tortured the Grim Reaper."

"What?" I could feel the power within me start to rise to the surface, the thought of Death suffering under the hand of this crazy bitch too much. "Fix him," I demanded, jabbing a finger toward Ace. "Fix him right now, Layla, or I'll—I'll fry you to ash!"

I really needed to work on my intimidating phrases.

"Now, now, Faith," Layla purred, pressing herself against Ace. In his delirium, his mouth was plastered with a big, goofy, lovestruck grin, and his hands eagerly gripped her body. All he needed was heart-shaped pupils to complete the visual. "You have to play along to attend the party. Kill me and the emotion incantation will never wear off for your friend. Both the warlock and Death are fine, as long as you don't act up."

Heat tingled in my fingertips at the thought of ending this bitch once and for all. But if she was telling the truth, killing her wouldn't be worth it. I breathed deeply, trying to calm myself down. I had to keep it together. I had to keep moving forward.

"Take me to Ahrimad," I said.

Layla's mouth curved. She led me and high-as-a-kite Ace further into the catacomb. Torches lit polished marble on the walls and the floors, a reflection of what the upper part of the mausoleum used to look like before it was shit on. The further we traveled, the more I became aware of a buzzing vibrating through me like the ground had a pulse. Finally, we stopped in front of a metal door.

"Get in," Layla commanded, Ace's bicep still imprisoned by her sharp talons. I couldn't leave him like this. " Now. Or I'll slit his throat."

"Do what she says," Ace said in an exhausted voice. "I'll be fine."

Anger fueled my courage as I stormed inside. The door shut behind me with a resounding thud, sealing me inside the capacious polished-marble room.

Oh my God .

Six of the reapers were tied in a circle on the floor. Their backs faced one another, and they had been stripped of weapons. Their heads lolled to the side, drawing my attention to the dreamy, far-off look in their red-tinted eyes, showing that they were under the empath demon's spell.

Romeo stood flat against a marble wall, shirtless and covered in . . . hickeys?

"What are you doing here?" Romeo whispered.

"Layla stuck me in here for the, er"—I glanced around at the empty room—"party?"

Romeo glanced to the side toward a staircase leading deeper into the catacomb. "Could you maybe hide behind that pillar and not breathe or excrete any smells for, like, five seconds?"

"What's going on?"

"Layla's lovely sister didn't know that charming me wouldn't work like it worked on my brothers," Romeo explained. "I tried to explain it to her. Turns out, she never learned English in the Underworld. Which is unbelievably hot . . . "

"Romeo, get to the damn point," I hissed, gesturing to the six tied-up reapers.

"Long story short, they think I'm charmed. I'm a little rusty with the empath demon language. Whatever I said to the sister made her uncuff me and want to bed me. But don't worry, I'm a professional. I politely declined the one-on-one action. Now she's bringing her other sister to—"

"Now is not the time for a gang bang, you idiot—"

"If you would let me finish , cheeky," Romeo said, "the other sister has the keys to our chains. And she will rid me of these ones, so I can move my hands and kill them." My gaze turned to the cuffs around his wrists, and I realized they were similar to the special handcuffs that I'd used to debilitate Duncan and Malphas.

"Ah."

"Yeah, ah." Romeo's attention snapped to the side again, as if he'd heard a noise. He waved me off and mouthed, Hide .

I ducked quickly behind the pillar, but not without peering around the corner. Sure enough, two empath demons rounded a marble wall and prowled around the tied-up reapers with seductive murmurs before heading toward Romeo. Talons outstretched, red eyes flickering, one of them spread her fingers through Romeo's pink Mohawk while the other fondled his belt.

Romeo smirked and seemed to be forgetting about the plan . One of the demons managed to unzip his pants. His eyebrows shot up, and he pursed his lips in consideration.

Unable to see any more of this, I pointed a finger gun at a wall light by Romeo's head and closed one eye to aim. The empath twins broke away, startled, as the light fixture exploded. Looking at Romeo, I jabbed a finger at the empath twins and made a punching motion, communicating my impatience, then I pulled back quickly behind the pillar again.

"Ha ha, sparks are literally flying with us!" Romeo said loudly.

By the time I peered back around the pillar, the girls were back to climbing Romeo like a tree. He wiggled his pelvis out of one empath's grasp while battling an aggressive French kiss from the other sister.

While Romeo had the twins distracted, I searched every corner of the room for an exit, but we were surrounded by walls with no doors. Even the way I'd come in had disappeared.

When I turned back to Romeo, his hands were free of the cuffs. One of the sisters lay gasping for air on the ground, her bronze skin a horrifying gray. Mid-kiss with the second sister's skull clenched between his two palms, Romeo came up for air and crushed her head with a horrifying crunch.

I gawked at the whole ordeal, open-mouthed.

Romeo snarled; his normally playful pink eyes seethed around the edges with a ring of fire. Black markings similar to Death's shifted over his left pectoral. He glanced down at himself and cursed, zipping up his pants. And just like that, his affect snapped back to normal.

"Oops!" Romeo chuckled. "Almost lost my grip and ate your face off there." He held up a ring of keys and jangled them. "I'll get to work freeing my brothers. You keep lookout, yeah?"

"Sure," I said, uneasy over the way Romeo had crushed that girl's head like an eggshell. "Try to hurry up."

Romeo freed each of his brothers one by one, pressing his finger into their hearts. Each time, the empath's venom expelled from their bodies in plumes of red smoke, and they awoke in a state of confusion.

"What happened?" Denim asked.

"When we entered the mausoleum, we were attacked and enchanted by empaths," Romeo explained, glancing at the mutilated corpses of Layla's sisters.

Wolf cupped a hand over his mouth. "Yo! They are dead as shit!"

"Do any of you remember seeing Death?" I asked.

"I thought he was with you?" Leo walked closer as he worked out a knot in the back of his neck.

"Death was enchanted. Like you guys. I don't know where he is, but I know that Ahrimad needs a body, and Death was in a vulnerable state. So we need to find a way out of here fast."

For some reason, Layla had led us into this room, and now we all had to figure a way out.

"Well, it looks like Ahrimad is going to have to come to us," Wolf said. "This room is sealed tight with a ward. Anyone see my weapon?"

"Up your pretty arse and around the corner," Blade replied, bending down to pick up a knife wedged into a secret compartment in his boot with a snicker. "They took our weapons."

Wolf jabbed a finger at Blade. "Not for nothing, but I distinctly remember you getting us into this mess."

"Those twins sucked up all his pent-up anger like leeches and strangled the rest of us with their power," Gunner said to me. "We wouldn't have been enraptured had he not gone rogue and attacked them before the rest of us were ready."

Blade scowled at Gunner. "Don't be a wee narky hole because I'm better at fighting. Always whining like a little babe when you're ravening."

"He has a point, Blade," Leo said, taking charge. "Your wrath is spiraling faster than the rest of us. Focus on your patience. We all need to stay in control of our sins tonight."

The ground trembled beneath our feet. Our heads turned in unison as a segment of the wall beside us vanished like a mirage, and an archway that hadn't been there began to appear, revealing another room with a mirror-like object in it.

My heart pounded.

"The portal," I whispered.

"Nothing gets past you," commented a familiar raspy voice. Malphas appeared in the portal room, rounding the narrow archway and standing in the middle of it, bracing his arms on either side. "But apparently, many things get past me . . . " He looked down at the dead empath twins and grimaced. "Ouch."

The sight of him made my whole body shake uncontrollably. "You bastard!"

Malphas's onyx eyes flicked to mine, amusement dancing within their endless depths. "Is that any way to talk to family, Faith? I'm practically your father-in-law."

I stormed toward him, but Leo's hand gripped my upper arm and stopped me.

"You stole the Book of the Dead ," I growled.

The Seven moved in behind me.

"We killing the bird or what?" Blade demanded.

"Bird?" A muscle in Malphas's face twitched. He sauntered into the room. "Ever seen a moron with his dick attached to his forehead like a unicorn?" He paused. "Would you like to be the first?"

Blade snarled a little.

"Here's how this is going to go," Malphas continued, his dark gaze sweeping over the Seven. "Surrender to Ahrimad. All of you. Or don't."

The sly smile that tilted one side of his mouth communicated he'd very much rather they didn't.

My fingers rolled into fists. "So, this is what rock bottom looks like for a demigod. You're just Ahrimad's bitch."

"Excuse me, holy dove," Malphas said, holding up a finger for me to be quiet. "I am talking to the Seven Deadly Shits."

Suddenly, Denim and Wolf lunged forward on either side of Malphas. They both cried out in agony and dropped to their knees, their bodies arching back as their faces locked in twisted distress. Darkness had webbed out of Malphas's eyes, spreading outward across his pale skin. Blade lunged forward to strike the raven demigod, but he too was crippled by pain and dropped to his knees.

Chills raked through my body at the awareness that I couldn't move either. He'd affected me without me even knowing it. Every part of me was locked into obedience.

The reapers were paralyzed on the ground, their screams of raw torment unbearable. They clawed at their skin and thrashed their heads like they were trapped in a nightmare with their eyes wide open.

Malphas stood motionless in the middle of this violent torment, his expression void of any emotion.

"Don't do this!" I screamed at him, the muscles in my neck so tight with his power I could barely breathe. "Please, Malphas. You're going against your own flesh and blood!"

Malphas's onyx eyes slithered to mine. "Maybe next time he'll make sure I stay dead."

The sensation of talons scraped the inside of my brain.

My knees locked as the floor moved beneath my feet. The reapers' screams were muffled as I was thrust across a threshold into another room. I hit the floor and landed on all fours, still unable move any of my limbs on my own. I stared down at my hands and tried to move my fingers, but my brain betrayed me. The ringing grew louder, my head tilting up to gaze at the massive mirror across the way. The portal.

Malphas's power wore off as I inhaled a sharp breath and regained the ability to move. I lurched up onto my feet. The archway through which I'd entered closed, leaving behind a marble wall. I banged my fists against it, begging my power to unleash as I imagined the horrible things that psychopath was doing to the reapers on the other side. But my body was drained, fatigued, and nothing sparked from my hands. I pressed my back against cool marble and desperately tried to keep from panicking, but my emotions were spiraling out of control.

Coldness washed down my spine.

I turned my head to the side and froze.

Death.

Hanging limply from the ceiling by chains.