Chapter 20

This ruined all my plans. Balthazar wasn't supposed to be here.

"Where are they?" I asked as I shot to my feet.

He held up his hands. "Relax, little one. Your remaining Virtues are safe."

As sure as fuck they are.

When Ares and Hades entered the room next—through a materialization of will rather than a portal—I realized that I had been tricked.

Hades twirled the ring I had gifted him on his finger while Ares looked annoyed, but resigned.

Because they're with Balthazar.

I've been set up.

"Does someone care to explain what is going on?" my mother asked with an edge to her voice. The temperature in the room blazed with heat as the air turned wavy.

Lucifer's prison shimmered as if it was alive with fire. He seemed unaffected inside of it, but I could have sworn his eyes shifted.

And looked directly at me.

"The fate of all supernaturals is one the line, Sonya," a feminine sultry voice answered.

I recognized the female that Derek had introduced as Vicki. She was a siren, if memory served, and she leaned into Sarah.

Sarah had once been a muse, but now she was a mermaid. Or something like that. My crash course in my mother's unresolved sins was still shaky.

I scanned the room and I realized that something big was happening. Something bigger than me.

There was no way that this dinner had been an impromptu thing. Hades had been slated to arrive at Orion's doorstep this morning all along.

This meeting had already been planned. It hadn't been my idea at all.

"Vicki, whose side are you on?" Sonya asked as an uncharacteristic hurt thrummed in her voice. "Did you know about this, Sarah?"

The other female glanced down and toyed with a necklace with a gorgeous blue gem. "I knew."

"Well I didn't," the Dean snapped as she stood, the power of the Underworld sending shadows swirling around her fingertips. Anyone who was in charge of Fortune Academy controlled all the collective power of the campus, which was still a formidable force. "I'm here to protect the interests of the Academy. If this is some sort of trick—"

"Enough complaining," Balthazar said, lifting one clawed finger in protest, making a pop sound in my ears as a thrum echoed through the ground. "We only needed to find a way to get you all here in one place." He glanced at me. "Preferably without resistance to conserve as much of your power as possible." He grinned, showing off his sharp teeth. "Hades, if you will?"

The muse waved his hand, sending the air behind him rippling with smoky dark green currents.

My Virtues stepped through a moment later in chains and a scream of rage stuck in my throat.

Logan wore a brace over his chest and binds on his wrists and ankles, preventing him from shifting. I knew because I felt his pain. His bones constantly fractured, attempting to obey his instincts, but never being allowed to reform properly left him trembling in agony.

Hendrik wore a dark crystal around his neck, one that reminded me of the pain capsule we'd all had to feed during the week at Cole's hideout.

It felt like coming full circle back from the original days when Hendrik had asked me to power a Blood Stone, back when I didn't know what that was.

This was no blood stone around his neck, but rather something darker. Something lifeless that brought everything else around it down into the depths of sorrow.

A Necromancer's toy, I decided.

Kaito had chains over his mouth like a horse's bit, preventing him from speaking.

Dante's scars continually bled, leaving streaks of red down his chest and over the chains adorning him.

And Asher, my sweet incubus mate, had tears streaking down his face.

His body seemed unharmed, but his soul was broken. His pain was the worst of all because I knew he was reliving his worst memory over and over again.

I deeply regretted using that as his source of pain when training Seth's crystal.

Because that's what we'd been doing. It hadn't just been a power source.

It had been a part of a master plan.

Seth stepped through last, looking pleased with a quick scan of the room. "Good," was all he said, then nodded at Hades.

Orion doubled over, his sunlight flaring as darkness battled with his light.

My angels, too, doubled over as old bruises bloomed to life.

I stared, horrified, as I realized that they crystal had been used to train on them, too.

"Sorry, little goddess, but if you want your mates to live, you're going to do what I say," he told me, his voice quiet and low, but carrying with ease. "Release Calamity from the prison you created. Set it free."

I stood to my full height, snarling as a sense of manic rage set in.

"Gladly."