Chapter 14

"Midas," Natisha called from the depths, her voice rich with mirth no doubt born from piercing the sigil I had been using as a mute button for us. "We have much to discuss, you and I. Bring the shadow child with you."

A chill rippled the length of my spine and left me shivering with cold certainty this was the end for us.

Without hesitation, Midas stepped forward to meet the challenge head-on. "Let me go alone."

"Let me introduce my foot to your adorable butt," I said, and flexed my toes in my shoes for him to see.

"Hadley—"

"Our fates and lives are intertwined," I reminded him. "You can't protect me by leaving me behind."

Lips stretched thin, he tilted his head in acknowledgment, but his eyes burned with the primal need to protect his mate.

No other choices left, I turned to Ambrose. "Are you ready?"

"I am hungry."

"Same difference." I patted Ambrose's shoulder. "You're up first."

"Excellent." The shadow descended, his shape growing more defined than ever. "I need a moment."

The quickness of his steps soon carried him from our sight, and I sent up a quick prayer for his success.

"Midas, trade bags with Remy." I turned on the stairs. "Remy, you're hanging back. Understand?"

Squaring her shoulders, Remy braced for an argument. "Are you out of your—?"

"You will keep the hearts up here," I ordered her, "out of Natisha's grabby hands."

The gravity of the task, the trust it implied, snapped her mouth shut before more angry words escaped.

Without further hesitation, Midas slid the straps down his shoulders. "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Look," Remy began. "I screwed up, okay? I know it, you know it, she knows it. You don't have to rub it in, pretty boy."

"I wasn't questioning your loyalty." He held the bag out to her. "I'm worried about your safety."

"Oh," she grumbled, trading packs with him. "I'll be fine."

"Watch your back." I gestured to her sequined outfit. "And your front."

"Yes, Mother."

Leaving her behind, Midas and I began our final descent, our footsteps synced in an ominous march.

I wish Linus was here.

The thought was so random, I wanted to laugh. I did wish he was here. He would know what to do. He always knew what to do. He could fix this. He could save us. He could…

Frak.

When had I started idolizing Linus instead of fearing him?

Don't get me wrong. His magic chilled me. His control over that much power terrified me. I had been on the wrong end of his scythe too many times to be comfortable with him in that area. But he had become my friend, a person I turned to for advice, a guy who would always be there for me, one who was willing to accept a black mark on his soul if it meant saving mine.

Obviously, I was never going to tell him or anyone else any of this. How awkward would that be? For both of us? Linus wasn't a touchy-feely kind of guy. He would blush, stammer, then vanish into his shadowy cowl to escape the embarrassment of my praise.

Humility was a great attribute in a guy who, along with his fiancée, wielded enough power to take over the world if they ever got bored enough.

And I was compartmentalizing again.

Gah.

I hated when my brain took vacations without filling out the proper paperwork.

The staircase began to widen about the time the chant slurred into a litany of groans and moans.

Ambrose was feeding, and he was feeding well.

The build of pressure within me fell somewhere on the scale between the first and second faegate takedowns. I could bear it, but it wasn't comfortable. Midas must be crawling in his skin.

We reached the bottom, and I couldn't stop the grimace when I spotted the scattering of young women who had fallen at Natisha's feet. They had fought Ambrose to protect her, but they were no match for him.

Hair as red as wet blood spilled down Natisha's back, and the farthest reaches of eternity filled her eyes with a darkness no emotion could permeate. Her smile, when it came, was a cold, reptilian thing.

Midas and I stepped onto the uneven stone together and waited for her to acknowledge us.

"You failed to fulfill your end of the bargain." Natisha measured us. "Your hands are empty."

Done with his meal, Ambrose came to stand beside me, his essence throbbing with pent-up energy.

"We have six hearts." He fixated on the fallen woman nearest him. "We only need one more."

"That would make us square." I played along with my darker half. "You're here to bear witness, which means I can place the last heart in your hands before it stops beating. What do you think?"

"You wouldn't dare." She sneered at me. "You are too soft."

"Try me." I gestured to Ambrose, and he passed me my swords. "I'm in a rush, so decide quickly."

"Your city will fall." A smile ripened her lips. "Your people will burn."

"Nah." I shrugged off her prophesy of doom. "We'll be fine."

I had to believe that was true in order to make it across the finish line.

"There are twelve witchborn fae here." I crossed to the nearest one. "That's plenty. I'll even let you pick which one dies."

"You have failed." A flush of anger swept through her, scorching in its intensity. "Submit."

"I'm not much into submission." I flexed my fingers on their hilts. "It's not my thing."

"One heart is as good as the next." Midas flicked his wrist. "Kill that one and be done with it."

"I like the way you think." I positioned the tip of one sword over the heart of the nearest woman. "Sorry about this." I ignored the lurch in my gut and pressed until blood stained her shirt. "Nothing personal."

"Stop." Natisha stepped forward. "Leave these women unharmed."

"Why?" I applied more pressure. "What makes them so special?"

Natisha wasn't the kind to stir herself on someone else's behalf.

Unless there was something in it for her.

Something big.

From the corner of my eye, I spotted Midas flaring his nostrils, breathing in their scent. "They're yours."

"As in her offspring?" I studied their faces. "They do look awful similar, don't they?"

With their faces slack and their uniform of dark pants, shirt, and cloak, I hadn't noticed the resemblance.

Keeping my blade right where it was, I wondered, "Doesn't a fae mother and witch father make them faeborn witches?"

"Does it matter?" Midas locked his gaze on her. "They're all the same."

"Yeah." I twisted my handle. "You're probably right."

It wasn't like they were first cousins or anything, but these women were related to Midas, and I wasn't sure how he would feel about us doing what must be done to survive this confrontation. There was no love lost between him and Natisha, who had let him be sold to the goblin rather than claim kinship and spare him, but these women had no part in that. They were far too young, or so they appeared to me.

Even that assumption was a deadly one. I couldn't afford sentimentality. Not now. Not with them.

The scream Natisha unleashed as I dug into her daughter's flesh left my ears ringing.

"Why did you want the hearts?" I gave her a moment to answer, and when she didn't, I applied more pressure. "Why ask us for what you had on hand in endless supply?"

"Cruelty?" Ambrose suggested. "Pettiness?" He chuckled. "No? What cause then, for your treachery?"

"I swore an oath to the girls' father," Natisha growled, "who was a member of the witchborn fae coven, that in exchange for his seed, I would not harm him or his. I could not harvest them for myself without breaking my word."

"Why ask me to do it?" That worried me most. "Why not hire out the work? Or twist a bargain for it?"

"Your participation anchored my curse in your city, in your world, by your own hand."

A bitter taste flooded my mouth, but I couldn't reward her by showing how deep her words cut me.

"I am a creature of Faerie. I carried these children in my womb. They are mine and belong to my world."

Before she reached the punchline, the remaining puzzle pieces snicked into place, and I experienced an epiphany.

"You can enter the archive because you're of Faerie." I laughed softly. "You just can't exit it."

With only witchborn fae entering and exiting the archive, I was willing to bet Remy had gotten it wrong. I figured anyone—or anything—could enter. Getting out again? That was the sticking point.

This was it. This was finally it. The truth. The real reason why she needed the hearts.

"They keyed the archive to witchborn fae, didn't they?" I whistled through my teeth. "Makes you wonder if they didn't lure you in here to add to their collection, doesn't it? They had to know you couldn't get out once you got in."

Though her expression remained the same, crimson filled Natisha's eyes, and I could tell I had gotten her thinking.

"This is all very Snow White." Well, Evil Queen. "What are you going to do?" I laughed. "Eat the hearts?"

"Yes." She stared at me blankly. "What else would I do with them?"

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer, I guess.

Why lug them around in a backpack when you can carry them in your stomach?

"Why target my city?" I lost feeling where my fingers wrapped the swords' hilts. "It's a great city, don't get me wrong, but is it worth all this?"

"Atlanta is not yours," Natisha snarled. "You are merely the latest in a long line of necromancers with the hubris to assume you can control the land and its people. You are not the law. I do not recognize your authority."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with your ex, would it?" I made a thoughtful sound. "He ditched you, and now you're going to destroy his home and his family? The one he made without you?"

"Those girls were mine." Magic sparkled in her hair. "They were my life, my heart, and he stole them."

"Wait." I held up a hand. "I was told you ditched your kids for Faerie."

Vicious laughter rose up the back of her throat, and yeah. That did not sound good for us.

"I offered myself to Archimedes as his mate. I was willing to lessen myself for him, a mere warg, and he banished me."

"How did a simple warg banish a gwyllgi healer of immense power?"

"He climbed in bed with the witchborn fae first." Crimson magic shimmered across her skin. "He used their dual natures, their unnatural powers, to bind me to Faerie until my children had forgotten me."

A binding of that magnitude would have cost him, a lot. I couldn't imagine the sticker price on it.

"He used me as his broodmare, bridling me with sweet words of love." A growl entered her voice. "What he wanted wasn't my heart, but a powerful bloodline he could build by exploiting the girls' natures." Her upper lip quivered. "Now I will get what I want."

"You're the reason the gwyllgi, and shifters in general, were targeted by the coven."

"The streets of Atlanta will run red with the blood of Archimedes's offspring." Her teeth shone in a brilliant smile. "Then, and only then, will I know peace."

"They're your descendants too. You get that, right? What happens after you've murdered all your great-great-great-whatever-grandkids? You hand the city over to the coven? Was that the payment they required?"

"Our bargain is none of your concern." The gleeful malice in her eyes all but confirmed the charges. "The abominations I helped to create will get what they deserve."

"We aren't so easy to kill," Midas growled, his own teeth bright and sharp.

Laughter cut its way free of her throat, jagged and bitter. "I will slay you all without lifting a hand."

"A bloodline curse." Ambrose crackled with power. "The only survivor will be you, their matriarch."

Six witches, even six faeborn witches, were less than half the strength of a full coven of thirteen. Natisha was ancient, and she was pissed, and she had a direct route to all her targets through their lineage. She wouldn't have to hunt them down. A curse on her own bloodline would identify and kill them for her.

Six wasn't a bad substitute, when you looked at it that way.

"You're all hot and bothered over how Archimedes used you and your daughters, but what are you doing? The same exact thing, that's what. On a far more epic scale than he ever dreamed. What kind of mother does that make you?"

"Better than the woman who bore you. I have not lied to my children, ever. I have made my stance plain, and my daughters understand their roles."

Raise kids to believe what their parents taught was normal, and of course they would be okay with it. They had no perspective to see their own mother had honed them into weapons she would wield and then discard when she was done.

"You wouldn't have to try very hard to outclass my mom, but good on you for attempting smack talk. It's not a fae strong suit, so I applaud your efforts. Also?" I ground my molars together. "How does everyone and their momma know about my mother?"

Family secrets were supposed to be, you know, secret.

"Liz interrogated her," Midas ventured. "She must have shared the intel with…"

A growl rumbled through the air, deep and rich and vibrating the ground beneath our feet.

One second, Midas stood beside me.

The next, he was gone.

And I was spitting dirt out of my mouth.

"What the…?" I shoved upright in the next best thing to slow motion. "Midas?"

"Come on." Ambrose hauled me to my feet. "Move."

The rumble grew closer, and shale bounced in rhythmic bursts as if…

"Oh frak." I swung my head toward where Midas had been. "I was afraid of that."

The growl was not a growl, but the earth itself trembling and protesting the weight of the towering creature who held my mate in its fist as it strode toward me with booming footsteps. Not its, but hers. I was no expert on giants, or giantesses, but I couldn't pin another name on her.

Tipping my head back, I stared up and up and up at her. "How did that sneak up on us?"

Huge but proportionate, she was a craggy-faced woman of middle age, riddled with battle scars. She wore thick leather armor and carried gargantuan weapons strapped to her massive back. The silver braids of coarse hair that hung over her shoulders were longer than I was tall.

"That didn't," Ambrose answered. "The witchborn fae waited to change skins until she held the advantage."

Without a word, the giantess tossed the backpack of hearts onto the ground at Natisha's feet.

Remy.

Goddess, I should have thought of her first. I prayed my friend had survived their encounter.

Another time, I would have sent Ambrose to find Remy, but I couldn't afford to be without him.

"Choose your sacrifice from among the witchborn fae." Natisha kept her jaw tight. "Give me the seventh heart, and I will consume it fresh. Touch not my daughters, and I will consider your bargain fulfilled. You will be free of your debt to me. Do as I bid you, or your mate will become the first to taste my curse."

Oh, sure.

Nowshe was onboard with my murder plan.

With one death, I could do as she asked, fulfill our bargain, and be done with her. But I would be the one doing her the favor. She was offering me nothing. Sparing him in this place didn't mean a thing if she unleashed her curse upon his family as soon as she escaped. Midas would die either way.

To give her the final heart was to condemn my city, my friends, and those I considered family.

I was the future potentate. No matter the cost to me and mine, I had taken a vow, and I would honor it.

"Canthrig will crush your mate if you disobey me." Natisha smiled then, certain she had won. "You would not allow harm to come to him. You are soft, as I once was, but I will do you this favor and teach you how to survive."

"I've survived fine on my own, but I appreciate the offer."

"Canthrig?" Natisha snapped her fingers. "You have my permission."

The creature squeezed Midas in her fist, and small pops rang out as his bones were broken.

"We…will…not…bend," he wheezed. "Atlanta is…ours."

"How do we take her down?" I kept my voice low for Ambrose's ears alone. "We're both crackling with magic. You can't have much room left."

"We must unleash what we have stored," he agreed. "We must perform a rite of magnitude."

Magnitude.

There was that word again.

It must hold more meaning than my limited magic know-how could assign.

"Such as?"

"I consumed the latent magic of the other gates," he reminded me, "which destroyed them."

"Yeah, I was there." I resisted the urge to roll my hand to get him talking. "What about it?"

Ignoring my impatience, he continued, "Had I channeled that same power back into the gate…"

Finally, the light dawned. "You would have opened it."

"This gate was meant to be opened by a coven," he warned, "not a single person."

"Good thing you're not a person." I slapped him on the back. "Get started."

"Have you considered…" he wet his lips, "…you might be as trapped here as Natisha without the hearts?"

"Can you circumvent the spell on the portal and get us through?"

"I will do my best."

"That's all any of us can do." I blew out a long breath. "I'll distract Natisha and her goon."

The question was in his posture, but he didn't ask how I planned to accomplish my half of the objective.

Allowing his shadows to thin and swirl, Ambrose slinked toward the gateway, which was easily five times larger than the previous, and set about his task. That kind of magical output would draw notice. Fast.

We had to be ready to run when the faegate activated. And by we, yeah, I meant Midas, Remy, and me.

Somehow, someway, we were all blowing this toxic popsicle stand together.

It was one thing to stand before Natisha and uphold my vows to the city with righteous fury.

It was another to allow her and her minion to hurt my mate while I looked on, unbending.

I wasn't all that strong, not really. I didn't want to find out how easily I would break. How easily Hadley would break. She was more resilient than Amelie. But at the end of the day, I was still me, whoever that was, and I loved Midas more than I had ever loved anyone.

"Choose your dinner." I gestured to the fallen women. "Who looks tastier?"

"The women with the talon pendants on their lapels are mine. You may take any other you choose."

"Okay." I had done this, and I could do it again, but goddess, I didn't want more blood on my hands. "I'm partial to blondes, so I'll hack up the brunette. It's a mercy killing, really. Do you see how much eye shadow she's wearing? Smoky eyes are one thing, but she looks like a raccoon who got dumped the night before prom."

"You waste my time." Natisha glanced toward the creature, and it flexed its fingers. "Do you want him dead? You are mated. Your place as beta is secure. You will inherit the pack from his mother if you do nothing, as long as you can hold it. He has given you no heirs, but otherwise, his purpose is done."

"I'm not so hot on having kids," I admitted. "This bonkers vendetta of yours is not making me regret that choice. Like at all. Not even a little bit."

Between the dangers of my position, both with the OPA and the pack, and my upbringing, I couldn't picture me pushing a stroller. Pretty sure my mother wrecked the whole procreation thing for me when I was still a child myself.

"Children are a blessing." Her lips thinned. "They are also a curse."

A bloodline curse for a cursed bloodline.

Fitting to use your own blood to wipe out a line you helped birth.

You know, if you were a banana sundae with extra bananas.

"Mmm-hmm."

"I have never loved as I loved my first daughters, and you see what misery that bond has wrought."

Movement snared the corner of my eye, but I couldn't afford to shift my focus off Natisha.

"I see a woman who got dumped by her man, who has held a grudge for goddess only knows how many centuries, and who would rather burn a city and its people to the ground than move on with her life." I shrugged. "You're pathetic. You're bitter. You're miserable. Basically, you're my mother made over. Except she was content to ruin my life. You're not going to be happy until you wreck everyone else's."

A flicker of light passed through the gate, and Natisha's neck twitched as if she and it were connected.

"What kind of person holds a grudge for this long?" I kept pushing her buttons. "Not a sane one."

"You dare?"

"I do."

As I took a bold step forward, a white-sequined blur of motion punched her in the face, right in the nose.

The element of surprise toppled Natisha, and the ancient fae cracked her skull on the unforgiving stone.

Remy had thrown herself into the fight. Several of her. And all of them appeared to be in one piece.

Thank the goddess.

"You…" Natisha rasped, "…will…pay…for that…"

Already, the healer was sitting upright, shaking off the headshot.

"Hadley," Ambrose yelled, the faegate core rippling as it came alive with power. "The time is now."

"I'm not leaving without Midas," I shouted back. "Hold on."

The giant spun until she made me dizzy, trying and failing to keep her eyes on the Remys swarming her.

Swords in hand, I blocked out her struggle and settled in to play distraction for Natisha.

We had to get Midas, and to do that, we had to go through the giantess first.

"Remy," I called and tossed her one of my blades, earning a smirk from the ancient fae.

The Remy who caught it treated it like a hot potato and passed it off to another who tossed it to a third I worried would drop it. That Remy handed it to one who settled into a fighting stance with a wicked grin.

Must be Four, the fighty one, to look so pleased to be holding a weapon.

Stealing a page out of my book, Four severed the giantess's Achilles tendon. The giantess roared her pain, rattling the floor beneath us when she hit one knee. The other Remys piled on, unfastening the buckles on her breastplate to expose vulnerable flesh as the giantess shook them off like a wet dog flinging water.

Using my distraction, Natisha rushed me in a flash of blinding speed. I dodged in time to keep her claws from slicing me in two, but she ripped open the forearm on my dominant side, making me glad I was ambidextrous with a sword. The pain was surreal, but I was so stuffed with magic, the wound healed before my eyes.

Honestly, that part might have hurt worse.

Meanwhile, Four thrust her borrowed sword to the hilt in the giantess's chest. Heart's blood poured down her front, and she clutched the wound with her free hand, but Four was on the move. Using her braids, Remy climbed up the giantess's side. She swung back and forth until the angle allowed her to pierce the giantess's eye with gruesome precision.

Her bellow of agonized rage left my ears ringing until I wondered if I would ever hear again.

Collapsing onto her back, the giantess twitched and writhed, her kicking feet plowing furrows.

Wounds too grievous to survive, she was unable to revert, but death would reclaim her stolen form.

Bringing up my sword, I hacked at the thick arm crushing Midas in its grip. She barely stirred to acknowledge the pain, even when Remy got the picture and started work sawing on the other side. With the giant's muscles in a rictus clench, we had no hope of freeing Midas otherwise.

"Hadley."Locked into the gate, Ambrose strained against its pull in my direction. "We have to go now."

"Frak."I cut faster, putting my weight behind each strike. "We have to hurry."

"Yeah." Remy paled. "Natisha looks grumpy."

"Hurry." Ambrose's voice wavered. "I can't hold it much longer."

Hecate, I beg of you. Let me get my friends out of here alive.

The giant's arm thudded onto the ground with an impact that rocked me, and Midas let out a grunt of pain as he hit. I rushed to him, pried him free of her spasming fingers, and hauled him clear.

"Remy." I tossed her my second sword. "Watch our backs."

Channeling the magic thrumming in the bond between Ambrose and me, I used that power to give myself the strength to lift Midas in a fireman's carry. I staggered to the gateway, whose glow humbled the moon, repeating my prayer on a loop the whole time.

Once, I would have claimed the goddess didn't listen to me, that she didn't care, but she had given me Midas, my new life, my friends, my second chance. For all that, I could only thank divine intervention. The odds of me surviving had been too slim on my own. Even with Linus acting as the necromantic equivalent of my guardian angel.

"You will not…leave this place…alive."

A shriek filled with so much hate and rage that I recoiled spewed into the air, and I glanced back to watch Remy squaring off against Natisha, my blades in her hands, Natisha's fingernails still wet with my blood.

"Go," Remy ordered me. "Get out of here."

"No man gets left behind," I reminded her. "You know the drill."

"I can get out." Remy yelped when Natisha swiped her hip. "Don't worry about me."

There were two ways out left, but Ambrose would have to destroy the faegate to Faerie behind us within seconds. Remy could still exit into Buckhead, but all that meant was Natisha could too.

Assuming, you know, he rewired the faegate and I wasn't about to faceplant during my big exit scene.

The backpack full of hearts slumped where the giantess had tossed them, right at Natisha's feet.

There was no time to retrieve them, not if I wanted to get Midas out alive, but at least she didn't have enough hearts to pull off her big plan.

The old fae could attempt to force Remy to harvest the last heart required to fulfil her bloodline curse, and I wished her luck with that. Remy was as stubborn as the day was long. She would rather die than give Natisha what she wanted just for the excuse to thumb her nose at her.

Goddess, I hated leaving her behind, but we had no good options.

"Hadley," Ambrose groaned. "We have to go."

With Midas in my arms, I gave a firm nod to Ambrose, who blasted power into the gateway to fully activate it. Magic rippled in the air, which smelled sweet and green, and light spilled into the archive from the warm Faerie sun.

Eyes burning from the brightness, or so I told myself, I stepped through, leaving the archive—and my friend—behind.