27. Jaiyana

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

JAIYANA

M arduk.

Why does the past always come back to haunt me?

I don’t think it’s you. That’s literally how life works. You’re just old and have a lot of past to be haunted by.

Great, now I’m being haunted and calling myself old.

Despite the pitch dark, Rehan and Og’s dragon-slit gaze could have burned a hole in what was left of my tank top. I forced myself to talk to real people before anyone asked me about Marduk.

“My fire will give us away. I’m the only one who can’t see in the dark.” I hope I poked Tyson, but I couldn’t see shit. “Someone will have to guide me.”

My last adventure in the dark rushed to the forefront of my memory, and my heart thumped painfully. I’d been trapped in my mind, waiting for Doctor Raba to decide my fate. Despite my confidence, a tremble shook me from head to toe. I hated this.

A warm body slid to my side, and Rehan’s calloused palms ran down my arm.

I wasn’t alone this time. I wasn’t trapped.

You’ve got this, girl.

I really don’t, but we can wing it.

We couldn’t go back to London. Even if we could, we got what we needed: the video of me stealing another piece of Gorm’s Casket.

We had to keep moving forward. Marduk brought Caoimhe here, and Marduk was definitely powerful enough to come and go from Under London at will. Fuck, he probably had a portal down here. This was our exit.

“Did Marduk use a portal to get you down here?” I asked.

“Yes,” Caoimhe answered, her voice gaining strength. “It’s guarded by demons. Lots of them.”

“Demons?” Rehan asked. “Like the ones who attacked the island?”

“I don’t know.” Caoimhe’s clothing rustled like she was rubbing herself. “I didn’t even know demons attacked the island. I didn’t… I didn’t bring the demons to the island?”

“No. You didn’t. We know you didn’t,” Lux said, his voice so calming it almost made me relax a second time. “We just want to help.”

When Lux stepped into my conversation with Tenzin and took it over, I’d been pissed. Og kept taking control away from me and it felt like Lux tried to do the same. After the hurt in the air dragons’ eyes and this short bit of conversation, I doubted my snap judgment… worse. I planned to use Lux as cover to hide my new plan to get us out of Under London.

I’m a bitch.

Yup.

Caoimhe pressed herself further into Tenzin. “Tenzin got us out of the cell Marduk put us in, but we didn’t make it far on our own.”

A boom of slow steps sounded. A golem, Marduk. Shit. Lux must have heard it before me. That’s why he stepped in to try and speed us along.

Snap judgments really weren’t my forte.

Marduk, my ancient and evil enemy, had a portal. If we stayed here and let his golems take us, we’d get to his lair faster, but then I’d have a lot of explaining to do. If Marduk had made his usual deal with Caoimhe, the same he sorta made with me, he wouldn’t hurt her. But Caoimhe wouldn’t believe or trust that to be true. She’d obviously already tried running once the reality of her situation hit her. On the other hand, if we found his portal without him knowing, I could get Rehan to activate it right under his nose and possibly avoid my past altogether.

Avoidance is good.

Let’s go with that.

“Do you know which way you went when you ran?” I asked, my hands dropping for nonexistent weapons.

Fire sword time, Jay.

Nope, it's too bright. Keep thinking.

“I do.” Tenzin’s dragon-slit gaze narrowed in the darkness. “But once the spider got us in cocoons, I lost track of everything… I’d probably put us right back in Marduk’s clutches.”

I prayed I looked sympathetic and not hopeful he’d do exactly that. The booming footsteps grew louder, and the shuffling of uneven demon strides joined the cacophony.

I snapped my fingers, the sound sharp compared to our voices. “Tenzin, scales on, no matter what from here on out.” I turned to where I thought Og stood. “Og, does the little tunnel dead end?”

Og closed his eyes, and more clothing rustled as I assumed he knelt to send his earth magic into the stone. “No. It comes to a ‘T’ after a quarter of a mile.”

“Perfect.” I wanted to take the lead, but I couldn’t fucking see. “Someone with dark vision lead us.” I smiled like an idiot and blinked. Only their floating eyes came in and out of existence. Rehan started to take my weight, but I pushed him off. “You’re a fighter and the tallest of us. You need to be in the front.”

Rehan grunted unhappily but did as I asked.

After my first limping step, my entire injured side screamed in pain. I stumbled.

Og and Lux both rushed to me at the same time, each steadying me with a hand on my left arm. Their fingers brushed, and they stepped back, their dragon-slit eyes blinking uncomfortably in the darkness.

I steadied myself in the pitch dark by kneeling and putting a single hand on the ground. This was down.

They’ve got to work this out.

“You go, Lux,” Og said. “I’ll collapse the tunnel behind us.”

Tactically, it was a sound decision. However, there was no tactical thinking to be had between these two.

Lux helped me up and pushed under my arm. I leaned into him, using both his strength and his eyes. For a moment, I was Betty again. I let her weakness and calm grace my mind as I accepted Lux’s support without judging myself.

The ground shook, destroying my odd reminiscing. I was Jay. Immortal, strong, and I didn’t need anyone to help me.

Don’t fucking say anything, brain.

Falling slabs of rock thundered against the ground and a small layer of dust made me sneeze. With the two starved and dehydrated supernaturals in the middle of us, we briskly made our way deeper into Under London. The tunnel narrowed with every step until we struggled to even walk in pairs of twos.

“You doing okay, Lux?” I asked softly.

Something that sounded like scales thumping a rock was followed by an ‘ow’ in Rehan’s deep voice. I assumed the ceiling dropped as the walls closed in, creating a narrow passage.

No. I’m not OK. I answered my own question. I’m marching towards a past I never dealt with, without my magic, and surrounded by men I’ve fallen head over heels for but know I can’t keep.

Not that they're pets.

No. Men are definitely not pets.

I pet Lux’s arm, where he took some of my weight.

Dragons could be pets, though. Maybe we are approaching all of this the wrong way.

I shook my head and focused. Lux was not a pet but a person, and he had a mate. Og. It had to be Og. They were perfect for each other. My curse was keeping them apart. They just needed to talk to each other and ditch the middleman… me. My heart twisted, but I ignored it.

“I’m here if you need some girl talk,” I said softly.

As neither Og nor Lux had spoken to me about each other, it was the only thing I could think of to let him know I was okay with them being a couple without saying those words.

Lux made an unhappy sound in his throat but still didn’t open up.

“I’m sorry I gave you that little mocking bow earlier,” I said. “Og’s hell-bent on making sure I’m not in charge, so when you interjected into my conversation with Tenzin, yeah, I thought it was something else and overreacted.” I squeezed his shoulder. “You got Caoimhe to trust you so fast. You are incredible with people.”

Lux squeezed me back. “I accept your apology, though now that you explained it, I feel like I owe you one too. I guess I’m just a little too sensitive.”

“Never say you're too sensitive, but also realize Og’s a dragon…all of us are. Well, not me, technically.” I snorted. “But time toughens all our skins, and if you live long enough, you end up with scaly armor whether you want it or not.” I patted his arm, wishing mine wasn’t quite so thick. “What I’m trying to say is, be who you are, but be honest and vocal if you need something different. I’ll be here for you no matter what.”

Awe, you gave him your blessing to date Og.

His shit father isn’t going to walk him down the aisle, I was serious about that.

Lux slowed our steps and cocked his head to the side. “Jay…“ he started, but the entire party came to a halt at the ‘T.’

I opened my third eye. Though it didn’t help me see the real world, magic glowed regardless of physical obstacles. Caoimhe said Marduk had a portal surrounded by demons. Demons were born of pure magic, and so were Marduk’s golems. Patches of power lit up like an infrared picture. I pointed us toward the brightest, and we hurried forward.

Lux didn’t continue our conversation but held me tighter. I didn’t press. Following his lead, I kept my mouth shut and let my mind wander.

I’d only been in one of Marduk’s other strongholds, and that was eight hundred years ago. As badly as I wanted to make a plan to infiltrate this one, I had no clue where to start. His resources or even the scale of his operation down here was a mystery.

More, why bring Caoimhe here? Marduk had strongholds all over the world. So why London? The same place I happened to end up on a quest to recover my memories.

There were too many coincidences going on here.

This entire thing could be a trap for me, but why?

A headache bloomed to life. The pain in my head throbbed with the road rash on my side. At this rate, I’d need Og to heal me, but that would make him vulnerable. I just wasn’t willing to do that.

Caoimhe walked in front of me. Unlike my stupid human vision, which couldn’t see shit in the pitch-dark caves, she probably had something closer, though not as good, as the dragons. The nymph occasionally warned me about thinner parts of the tunnel and rocks sticking out that could bump my injuries. Even weakened and scared, she was going out of her way to help me. Anger, not at her, licked through my body with Tyson’s fire.

Marduk was up to the same tricks he’d used a thousand years ago: making deals with people desperate for power in exchange for their unborn children. Despite my lack of tradable currency, aka, fertility. I couldn’t shake the fact that all of this somehow related to my current predicament.

I’d burned Marduk’s angular face into my brain, along with his high cheekbones and perfect silver-blue hair. When I first met him, he considered himself the god of Babylon, though the city had fallen thousands of years earlier. He’d been proud of his part in making it fall. More than twice my age, Marduk understood the world needed balance, good and bad. He claimed to be that balance for whatever side needed it, which was usually his own.

We paused at the next intersection. Rehan, still at our front, waited for me to give him directions. I confidently steered us right. If my mates questioned it, they did it silently.

“What kind of nymph are you?” I asked Caoimhe to keep all of us distracted.

A few seconds passed before Caoimhe answered. “Fire.”

“Full-blooded?” I asked.

Caoimhe huffed. “That’s rude to ask.”

I grunted, not really caring how rude it was. “Did you know I wasn’t human at the Social?”

Silence fell between us.

“No,” she eventually said. “Sorry, I was shaking my head, but you couldn’t see it. Did you know I wasn’t either?”

“I suspected but was too caught up in my own crap to care,” I said, maybe too honestly.

“Where are you taking us?” Caoimhe asked, her voice wavering.

I squeezed Lux, unwilling to answer her question. “Did you leave the island willingly?”

Caoimhe stumbled. “Yes…I didn’t understand. Marduk. He…”

“He tricked you,” I cut in, my voice bitter with my own experience. “I’m not judging you. But you found your mate. Why did you need off the island so badly?”

Our footsteps echoed in the cavern, swallowing any other sounds.

“Dragon shifters screen the human applicants to make sure supernaturals aren’t amongst them,” Caoimhe said quietly. “Only humans become dragon mates. You should know that. You had to sneak onto the island, too. The moment anyone besides Tenzin found out I was a nymph that would be it for us.” She sucked in a breath. “And I couldn’t leave my family. My parents and grandparents and my sisters. I live in a community. I wanted us to be a part of that.”

I didn’t have family. Not a soul in this world shared my bloodline. But I understood her desperation to be a part of something too well. I frowned. Knowing Marduk, Caoimhe was leaving out a significant piece of information.

Those in front of us rounded a sharp bend. I knew because I could see their faint outline in light that shouldn’t exist. Something flashed. A very unmanly scream came from someone toward the front before the sounds of scuffling bounced off the walls.

“What’s going on?” Og shouted from the back.

Someone grunted, and a blast of fire made me see spots before the blackness returned. A demon hissed, followed by a crash. The stone wall split to my left with a terrifying crack.

“There wasn’t a golem with these two,” Rehan said. “They must have demons canvasing the tunnels for you, Caoimhe.”

Caoimhe shook. “I can’t go back. He. I. I didn’t know what I was doing. He’ll…” her voice turned into a choked sob. I hardened my heart. We didn’t have a choice.

The sounds of running demons came from our back. Without any prompting, we booked it forward. The narrow tunnel spit us out into a large cave, maybe two stories tall, with three doors. Two smaller ones surrounded a massive metal contraption. Torches, lit with Marduk’s silver-blue magic, glowed in completely unnecessary but dramatic wrought iron sconces against the walls. It screamed evil magician's stronghold.

The dragons circled up around Caoimhe and me while the air filled with a choir of their angry growls in six-part harmony.

Behind us, demons swarmed out of the tunnel we exited. Marduk’s silver-blue magic flowed across their dark, rotting flesh and knit with the dry bone underneath. The small doors to either side of the larger one opened. A golem stepped out of each. Unlike the hastily erected golem in London, Marduk had taken his time carving these. Their bodies resembled Greek statues, and he’d etched runes, much like Ogs, into their stone skin. Burning silver-blue eyes watched us from lidless sockets.

This wasn’t just one of Marduk’s strongholds. This might be his main one.

Frick, feck, fuck.

Lux still hadn’t dropped me, and I wiggled forward, forcing him to make me a spot in our line of scales and claws.

The double doors dramatically opened, blowing Marduk’s over-the-top white cape. The ancient mage hadn’t aged a day. Tall and lean, with a broad smile and too keen blue eyes, his gaze dropped to my definitely not as flat as it used to be belly.

I took a single step forward, forcing a confident smile onto my face. “Sorry to disappoint, old friend.” I rubbed my stomach with my free hand. “It’s all wine and cheesecake.”