Chapter Twenty

Piper

I was livid. Never in my life had anyone yo-yoed me like Draco. One minute, he was saying he needed me to stop the end of the goddamned world, and the next, he was telling me my purpose in life was to kill him.

Seriously?He really believed that was the point of my existence? Not that I worked hard or tried to be a good person. Or that I cared about what happened to others. Nope. Your life boils down to murder, Piper. It's all you're good for.

Maybe he was an evil bastard, because what sort of man made a person like me promise to commit murder? It was like asking a nun to marry Satan or a pacifist to lead an army. So stupid.

"Stop being so melodramatic," Draco muttered as we took the elevator down to the lobby.

"Stay out of my head," I growled. "But I'm not wrong. You're an idiot for asking me to do that."

"You promised, so it is a done deal." He turned those pale eyes on me. "Unless you plan to renege?"

"No." I fucking hate you.

He chuckled. "You wish you did."

I scowled in his general direction. The doors opened, and we were about to step out, but a tall, shadowy figure blocked our way.

The shadow lunged at Draco, and he fell on his back into the elevator, landing hard with an oomph!

I screamed, not knowing what else to do. I wasn't even sure what I was looking at. A ghost? A demon? A figment of my imagination?

The shape moved with fast, fluid motions while Draco attempted to get to his feet. He was almost there when the shadow gripped him by the neck and tossed him to the floor again.

Wait. Is that…?With its wide shoulders and similar height, the shape almost looked like King, but Draco had killed him. Right?

The shadow wrapped its arm around Draco's torso. "I am not leaving without you," said the dark figure.

"Fuck you, King. I'm not going," Draco growled.

Holy shit. It was King. But how was he back? Then again, according to the "man" himself, that was his specialty. Avoiding death. Over and over and over again.

King maneuvered on top of Draco, wrapping his ghostly tentacles around Draco's neck. Draco's hands grabbed and clawed to free King's grip, but Draco's fingers passed right through the shape.

"You will never best me, son. Stop fighting."

Shit. Shit. Shit!"What do I do?" I cried out to Draco. Not sure why. It wasn't as if King was going to hit pause so Draco could give me pointers on how to stop two forces of nature from killing one another.

I closed my eyes, clenching my fists. "Please, please make them stop." Who I was talking to was a mystery to me. God? The universe? Anyone who could hear me and knew what to do? I prayed anyway. Please help. Please. Anyone!

I blinked and was standing on a balcony overlooking an endless stretch of ocean with blues so deep it was nearly black.

"What!" I jumped back, looking down at the white plaster beneath my feet.

"Hello, Piper," said a female voice.

Standing there was a woman about my age with striking blue eyes and blonde hair. She was beautiful, but not like anything I'd ever seen. She almost reminded me of King—real, but not from this world. Ethereal.

"Who are you?" I asked. "Where am I?"

"I'm Mia, King's wife. And this is the afterlife. My afterlife."

"I'm dead?" My eyes teared. I hadn't had a chance to say goodbye to anyone. My brother, my parents, my nieces and nephews, or Conni.

"Relax, Piper. You're not dead, which is why you're not in your afterlife."

"I don't understand."

"You will. Someday. Until then, I need you to stop King. My husband cannot be allowed to win. He cannot kill Draco."

I already knew that.

Mia continued, "If King ends him, he ends, too. He'll give up. He'll let his light simply…" she shrugged, "…fade away."

I frowned, not understanding a single word. And…was this really happening?

"Yes," Mia replied.

Goddammit!Were my thoughts private at all anymore?

"No. And the clock is ticking. You have to intervene, Piper. King thinks he deserves to be in hell, and as angry as I am at him for leaving me again, I know that's not true. He's the only one who's kept everyone safe for thousands of years. He murdered people. He tortured. He stole powers that were never meant to belong to any man. But he hated every second of it, and he did it because he understood the meaning of sacrifice.

"He chose to be evil and manipulative, even with me—sometimes—but in his heart, he knew it was the only way to protect what he loved." She exhaled slowly. "King isn't a monster, like he believes. He's the lamb. A lamb who willingly takes the shape of a wolf to keep the real wolves at bay."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Stop him. And then make sure Draco stops Ten Club."

"How?" I asked.

"I've been watching Draco since King left, and you were right to bet on him. He's the only one who can stop what's coming, but only if he's strong. He cannot go in with any weaknesses, or they will exploit them."

I stared into her blue eyes.

"That's you, Piper," she added. "Ten Club plays dirty, and they will use you to get to Draco. The way to avoid that is removing you from the chessboard."

But he wanted me on the board. He'd brought me along and placed me right there next to him.

"I watched King try to dismantle Ten Club for years, using every trick in the book, but somehow, they always survived and rebuilt. They did it by exploiting King's weaknesses: me and his children. And they'll do it to Draco if he falls in love with you, Piper. They will use you to manipulate him. He has to do this alone."

I understood her point, but how could she be so sure?

"Every mistake King ever made was because of me. I was his blind spot. I know I'm right, Piper. You have to abandon him—make him hate you. Make him believe you are his enemy. Be the lamb who takes the shape of a wolf. As for the Seers, I have been working on a plan. I will deal with them."

Seers.The first time I encountered King, he'd said I had the gene. Later, Draco had mentioned they were some sort of witchy group who controlled the afterlife.

"Just remember your Achilles' heel, Piper. You cannot allow Draco's good side to sway you from what has to be done. He's more powerful than any of us. They all know it. Just like King does. Just like I do. I was once a Seer, too, and I broke away from them, but I've regained my gifts since my death. I've only grown stronger, and now I know why." She exhaled sharply. "It was for this very moment. You and I can ensure Draco ends this."

My mind was spinning. I just didn't know whom to trust or what to do.

"Then follow your gut," Mia said. "And if everything turns out the way it's supposed to, you might not get your dream life, but you'll get your afterlife."

I stared, my mind trying to process all this.

"In case you're wondering," she added, "the afterlife lasts much, much longer."

So it was worth the suffering in the here and now. I got it. I did, but, "I just don't know if I can turn my back on him." I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"You can. Now stop my husband from making the biggest mistake of his existence."

"How?" I asked.

"Distract him so Draco can get away. Tell him—tell him that Draco's sister, Ariadna, has taken me. Tell him Ariadna won't let her brother die without a fight."

Draco has a sister?What sort of supernatural bullshit soap opera did I walk into?

Mia said, "She died and is with the Seers now. She isn't exactly on our side."

There had to be more to the story, but did I really need to know? "Draco hears my thoughts. How am I supposed to keep anything a secret?"

"You're not a Seer, Piper, but you carry the gene. Every cell in your body holds our knowledge. Use that to figure out how to block him. Now go. Hurry! King is about to kill him!"

I blinked and was back inside the elevator. King and Draco were still in the midst of a life-or-death struggle, and King was winning.

My heart was pounding a million beats per second. I wasn't all in with what Mia wanted me to do, but I did agree with her on one thing: Draco could not die.

"King! Stop!" I yelled. "Ariadna has Mia. She says she won't let Draco die without a fight."

The flurry of violence halted, and Draco scrambled to his feet. But instead of taking a moment to breathe, Draco reached toward King's shadow and squeezed. The shadow melted away.

I let out a sigh of relief. It worked. Mia was right.

"What happened?" Draco asked, panting hard. "And who is Mia? Who is Ariadna?"

I couldn't let him hear what came next, but how could someone like me block him? I had no powers. And telling me to access the knowledge inside a strand of DNA was like telling a person to stare at a library and read all the books inside.

"Piper! We need to get out of here. Why are you thinking about libraries and books?"

That was it. If I wanted to shield my thoughts, I had to clutter my mind with random shit.

I threw a wall up in my mind, flooding it with things from my lectures—the ruins of Knossos, the artifacts in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, and my own mental images of what life might have been like during the time of the Minoans.

"I was thinking about the classes I give, and I remembered the names of two women from King's time. It was a shot in the dark, meant to distract him, and it apparently worked." I visualized the different glyphs in my class's textbooks.

Draco stared for a moment and then brushed back his hair. "Thank you."

"Where did he go?" I asked. "Is he dead?"

"No, but I have weakened him further."

This was my chance to start turning on him. Weak like his son.

Draco stared in disbelief. "You think I am weak."

I just had to come to your rescue for the second time with King. "Sorry. I don't like dealing with all this stuff. Guess it's making me resent you. Just a little." I held up my fingers, pinching an inch of air.

"Let's go. We need to talk to my mother."

"Hopefully she won't try to kill you, too," I said. And, of course, it instantly felt wrong. I wanted to do what was right, but did I have the strength to go against who I was?