Chapter 28

T hirteen stressful hours later…

A sharp pressure sank into my gut, and I was torn from my body. All the practice flitting back and forth to the commune must have honed the skill. For once, I was cognizant of my soul going slippery as I was whisked away to Dis Pater’s study. Leaving my unconscious brother behind.

“What do you think about Blythe Montfort falling in love with the new mailman?” He sat with his back to me, staring down his screen. “Has it been overdone? I did kill the old one in the last novel.” He rested his chin on his palm. “It doesn’t have to be the mailman. There’s FedEx, UPS, DHL.” He tilted his head. “Maybe Kitt is the one who needs a romantic interest.”

“I could see you writing cat porn.”

A sigh moved through his shoulders. “And the stalker returns.”

“Whatever you want with Kierce, make it fast.” I tapped my foot a mile a minute. “I don’t have time for this.”

Matty had yet to wake, and I was coming apart at the seams trying to figure out what was wrong.

“I’ve been tolerant of you, mouthy girl, but even my patience has its limits.”

An orange tabby prowled around the corner, twitching its ears at him.

“Oh, Buttons.” He fished a cat treat out of a bag on his desk. “I’m sorry, daddy’s little angel boy.”

“I’m not your little angel,” the cat purred. “And I have no use for your apologies.”

“Oh, hey, Anunit.” I kept it casual, like I had expected her to pop in. “You know this guy?”

Stumbling back, Dis Pater hit his desk and fell flat on his ass. He scrabbled, frantic, pulling his laptop onto his head with a thwack that left him dazed for all of two seconds before terror set in again.

Oh, yeah. They knew each other. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be ready to pee his pants.

“How did you get past my wards?” He sat there, legs splayed. “It’s not possible.”

“Your wards do not affect Frankie Talbot, and so they do not affect me in her presence.”

“Y-y-you,” he spluttered, jabbing a finger at me, his face edging from red to purple. “What have you done?”

“I have given this child the power of her people, so that the spirit of the Alcheyvāhā will live on in her.”

“Hold on. My people?” A cold sweat broke down my spine. “What does that mean?”

The cat savored his fear for a moment longer then shook out its fur and yowled at the top of its lungs.

Without another word, she left me turning over what she let slip, and I couldn’t stop my brain gnawing on it. If Anunit was a distant relative of mine, would it explain why she could speak to me? Why she accepted our gift in exchange for our lives during that first meeting? Why, after all this time, she had placed her mantle on someone else’s shoulders?

And if it did mean those things, did I want to find out? Would knowing my ancestry ignite my curiosity over my parents? I didn’t want to meet them. I didn’t want to give them space in my brain or in my heart. But if I knew my lineage, then I might figure out why the gods had it in for me.

And how to protect my family from their wrath.

“Get out.” Dis Pater threw his keyboard at me, or maybe at the formerly possessed cat. “Now.”

Kierce burst in the door as his god ramped up his temper tantrum, but this confrontation was inevitable. Dis Pater expected a report on the Alcheyvāhā situation, a resolution, and boy howdy did I have one. But having Anunit drop in to scare him straight? That was icing on the cake.

“All decisions involving the care and keeping of the Alcheyvāhā burial sites now go through me. Kierce, you’re absolved from performing any duties pertaining to the Alcheyvāhā. I’ll oversee cleanup myself.”

Without murdering and/or lobotomizing anyone.

“You want to handle it on your own? Fine. Works for me.” Dis Pater smoothed a hand down his shirt. “Kierce will explain the protocol to you.”

“I have my own protocol, but thanks.” I focused on the cool weight of Matty’s hand in mine, picturing the chair where I sat beside his bed. “I’ll leave you to your work, and you can leave me to mine.”

With ease earned from extensive practice over the last week, I willed myself back into my body.

Unable to catch a breath until I checked Matty over, I sighed to find his condition remained static.

“What did I walk in on back there?”

Hard to believe I had kicked a hornet’s nest in the time it took Kierce to walk through the front door.

“Dis Pater wanted his update, but he didn’t get to his point before Anunit possessed his cat.”

“Buttons is a housecat.” His mouth fell open. “Anunit was inside Dis Pater’s home?”

“Um, yes.” I tapped his chin until his teeth clacked together. “Apparently, she can go wherever I go.”

Kierce sank onto the floor, his head down, his body frozen.

“You okay there?” I cupped his cheek. “You’re kind of pale, and you don’t have much color to spare.”

“Before, you were a curiosity.” He scrubbed his hands down his face. “Now he’ll view you as a threat.”

“Will that cause problems for us?”

“Gods exist to cause problems.”

“That sounds like a yes .” I smoothed my thumb across his jaw. “Too bad for him, I’m not giving you up.”

“You might not have a choice,” he rasped, leaning into my touch.

“There’s always a choice, and I choose you.”

And as soon as my brother was safe, I would devote my full attention to breaking Kierce free of Dis Pater’s control. Let him find a new Viduus. This one was mine .