Chapter 33

33

T he Rhodope Mountains stood in the distance, shrouded in clouds. Elektra could feel them getting closer to the entrance to the in-between. It hummed against her skin like a whisper of welcome.

In the past, the feeling had always comforted her because she knew she was going home and would be there soon. Vanth pressed his lips to the back of her neck, the warm touch comforting her, just like the feel of his strong arms around her kept her from feeling like she was about to spiral off into the ether.

Eiliene seemed to remember exactly where they were going, and the pegasus took instruction from her. Elektra didn't know what dialect of the fae she was using, and she was too scared to open her eyes long enough to ask.

They flew through the opening, and Vanth's fingers tightened around her. Of course he could feel it. He should have been raised at the temple amongst people who would have understood him. Her mate .

Elektra shut the thought down before she could give it room to grow. She wasn't sure what to do with that information. At the Celestial Court, there were always special ceremonies, like weddings, to mark that a mating was taking place. There had been no intention on either her or Vanth's part. It had just happened.

Talk to him about it later , she prompted herself. He loved her, and that was the best of starts.

"There it is!" Eiline called over the roar of the wind. Elektra opened her eyes to see the temple rising up underneath them. It was a blend of Greco-Roman architecture with Corinthian columns and overflowing terraced gardens. The founders had been part fae, and something of their preference for organic architecture had melded with it. The stone was the same lavender, blue-gray color of the Veil itself.

The pegasus landed in the courtyard, and Vanth slid off with a groan. "Oh, gods, that was wild," he complained before reaching up to help Elektra down.

Her knees wobbled, and she wanted to kiss the ground. She would have except for what was on it. There were splashes of rust-colored blood staining the paving stones.

"Eiline, you might not want to go in there. I didn't have time...the high priestess sent me—" Elektra began.

Vanth's mother slid gracefully from the pegasus and whispered something to it before turning back to them.

"We need to check that none of Lazarus's spies are still lingering about, and then I need to set the security protocols. With any luck, Maria never changed the spell," Eiline said, her face grim. Her magic threaded out of her as she walked, and corpses began to appear next to the courtyard, one at a time. "We will bury them, but last rites will have to wait."

Elektra nodded, numbness spreading over her. "Vanth can help me search the buildings," she said, and straightening her spine, she headed inside.

"The attack was awful, but this place is amazing. It feels—I don't know how to describe it," he said as he followed her.

The walls were painted with scenes from different mythologies of Afterlives, and statues of psychopomps lined the halls. Elektra stopped by Charon and lit an incense cone. Vanth surprised her by doing the same.

"I don't have any god to pray to for luck, so I'll light something for him because he is your favorite," Vanth said and offered her a small smile. "You're mine, so maybe he will look after you."

The heaviness that had been choking her eased a little. "You sap," she replied, and he winked at her.

They kept walking through the common areas, and there wasn't a whisper of anything living or dead.

"The ghosts are gone from here too," Elektra whispered, her eyes going wide. "There are always ones lingering about. The lost souls often turn up here to get assistance crossing the Veil."

"Then it proves my theory that Lazarus was behind the ghost stealing in Inferno. This fucker needs to die, and soon," Vanth growled, his expression darkening.

Elektra opened the double doors to the library, and Vanth made a surprised and happy sound. She quickly closed them again.

"No distractions. There's no one there," she said and kissed his pout. "We can come back, I promise. If there are no reapers left, we might have to become its guardian."

That was a worrying thought. There had to be others left out in the world. Elektra hadn't been the only one who was out on a job when the temple was attacked.

Magic pulsed through the temple, and Vanth squeezed her hand. "Mom wants us. She must have all the bodies together."

Outside, Eiline was weaving earth magic in the gardens. Elektra wondered if there was anything the fae female couldn't do. She had to have been so powerful before the curse if this was what she was like when hindered by it. The star iron hanging around her neck was different from the one Elektra had seen Flynt give her, so maybe he had found another one for her.

And this is the family you have mated into . The thought warmed her because, for the first time, she was going to be with a family that was like her. They would understand her magic and wouldn't be afraid of it.

The gardens rumbled under their feet, and the earth slowly swallowed the bodies of the reapers one at a time. There were twenty altogether, and Elektra forced herself to look at their faces. She would make Lazarus pay if it was the last thing she did.

"We need to keep moving. I can feel something growing like a thunderstorm building," Vanth said, rubbing at his arms. He nodded towards the forest behind them. "It's coming from that way. Mom? Are you sure you're up for this fight? I don't want you putting yourself at risk and having your curse knock you on your ass in the middle of a battle."

Eiline gave her son a long look down her nose, and Vanth flinched. "I am not sitting on the sidelines like some invalid. This medallion is very powerful. It is the most powerful your grandfather could get his hands on in the time we had. It will be enough for another three hours. If we need more time than that, it won't matter because we will all be dead."

"Fair enough," Vanth said and kissed her cheek. "You're my mother. I'm allowed to worry."

Eiline's expression softened. "I'm hoping that after today, you won't have to."

"You want to tell me what you meant by I am the spell?" he asked.

Eiline shook her head. "Wait a little while longer. It will be easier to show you once we are there. We had best get moving."

Vanth tilted his head back and sighed in frustration. "If you are wondering, Elektra, yes, she is always this stubborn."

"So that's where you get it from?"

Eiline laughed. "Wait until you meet his father."

They followed a trail through the gardens and into the forest. Elektra knew it well because it used to be a part of the course she used to run every day she was at the temple. At the edge of the border, Eiline re-activated the wards, and a silvery dome of light covered the temple.

"Good luck to any of Lazarus's cronies wanting to break that," Eiline said smugly.

Elektra stared up at them in awe. "You are going to have to show me how to do that one day."

With every step they took, Elektra could feel a pressure building in the air, and Vanth's power began to leak from his skin in whispy tendrils. They hiked up a small hill, and Elektra's breath caught. The lush valley of trees that used to be beneath them had been stripped to bare earth. The Veil rose up behind it, its lavender-gray wall of light shimmering.

"Holy fucking shit," Vanth gasped, his eyes staring up at it. "How come we can see it?"

"It's because we aren't in the real world anymore. Things present literally here," Eiline explained. She squatted down on her heels and stared at the cleared trees. Figures in black and red robes were walking about like industrious ants. Two glass and copper constructs caught the light, and a shiver swept up Elektra's spine. They were the size of concrete trucks and hummed with an aura that made Elektra's mouth go dry as dust.

"Those are the batteries. They are a fuck ton bigger than the ones I found at the ghost trappers months ago," Vanth said, tearing his eyes away from the Veil. "I'm assuming one was charged with ghosts, and the other was from magic stolen from people and creatures."

Elektra studied the lines of the camp and spotted cages. "Look! They have prisoners. I can't see their faces, but I would bet any money they are reapers. Lazarus could have been using the temple as bait, so when they returned, he had people to capture them."

"Then why wasn't anyone at the temple when we were just there?" Vanth asked.

Eiline made a hissing sound. "Because the bastard has the power he needs."

There were shouts of orders from below, and people began to move around one of the batteries. A flash of gold, and Lazarus himself appeared. They were too far away to see what he did, but suddenly, the battery exploded, and icy cold power hit them like a shock wave.

"That was what was left of the ghosts," Vanth growled. "I'd recognize that energy anywhere."

Elektra cried out as her connection to the Veil inside of her was yanked hard. She clutched at her chest, winded by the assault.

"Elektra!" Vanth was beside her in a second, catching her before she could hit the dirt. "What is it?"

"Look!" she gasped, pointing.

Where the battery had been, there was now a tear in the Veil, like curtains had been parted, and there was only darkness beyond.

"He did it," Eiline said, her voice trembling. She held a handkerchief to her nose, catching the blood dripping from it. "He tore off the patch holding the Veil together."

Figures began to move out of the darkness towards Lazarus. Ghouls and skeletons tore themselves free of the earth and began to form around their high priest. Fear gripped Elektra as they kept coming, an army assembling between their general and the forest.

Lazarus's living followers moved to the other battery. It was the biggest of the two, and Elektra could make out the black lines of a blood sigil on the earth around it.

"We need to do something," she said, pulling her sickles free. "Whatever he's about to do with that other battery, we can't let him."

Vanth pulled his sword free and stared at the army of the dead beneath them. "I'm with you. How do you want to approach this? I can try to wrestle some of those undead out of his control if you two want to rescue any of the reapers and stop Lazarus from charging his spell."

A roar shook the world above them, making the three of them hit the earth as something big swooped over them. A gold and black dragon landed among the army of the dead and roared again, fire spewing out of its fanged maw.

Vanth cringed. Maybe he shouldn't have flipped Azhdaha off.

"Well," he said with a terrified laugh. "I guess that's one way to start a fight."