“Gaius Suetonius Paulinus. The man who killed my daughters and destroyed my home. I killed him when I was Boudica.”
Cadan’s fist clenched. He remembered the bastard well. The one who’d taken everything from him. Not only Boudica, but his family too, years earlier when Paulinus had burned his village, Camulodunum.
“And the boy who sat against the tree? Maximus?” Esha asked.
“I killed him, too.” Diana sat hard on the couch, a vacant look in her eyes.
“Oh.” Esha blanched.
“I killed a lot of people.” Her voice was scratchy. “The boy followed his father everywhere. He was being groomed to take over and he was there when Paulinus killed my daughters. He was also on the battlefield when Paulinus came for me. So I killed him when I killed his father. Now, he wants to get out of Erebus.”
“What the hell do you have to do with that?” He didn’t want her anywhere near Paulinus, and it shone in his voice.
Diana’s eyes met his. “What don’t I have to do with that? He. Killed. My. Daughters. And I’m the one who sent him to hell. With his son.” She looked ill. “I killed anyone who got in my way after they killed Aela and Calea. I don’t regret most of it.”
“Just the boy,” Esha said.
Diana nodded, looked down at her hands.
“That’s it, then,” Esha said. “Paulinus could sense you because you killed him. Or your soul, rather, sent his to hell when you killed him as Boudica. Souls are powerful. By killing him, you probably linked the two of you together. At least in a small way. You’re his link to the outside world and I bet that’s why he wants you. It’s why we had a hard time leaving, too. Your soul was attracted to his.”
“I don’t get it,” Diana said. “Why is the portal threatening to open here? Why not in Italy, if it’s the Roman hell?”
“For the same reason that the university is here. Arthur’s Seat has the most magical energy of anywhere in Europe. The boundaries between earth and the afterworlds are weakest here.”
Diana buried her head in her hands. “What am I going to do? And why does he have Vivienne?”
“I don’t know about Vivienne,” Esha said. “She could be bait, a mistake, maybe even involved somehow.”
“Vivienne?” Cadan asked.
Diana briefly explained her friend’s abduction to him. “But she’s not involved. She was teaching my classes. Maybe the demon abductors got confused. So you think he’ll try to use me to get out?”
Esha nodded. “There was an altar.”
“An altar?” Cadan asked, dread sinking his stomach.
“Yeah,” Esha said. “Nothing says blood sacrifice like an altar.”
Diana swallowed, her eyes stark. “They want to sacrifice me?”
“Yeah, sucks,” Esha said.
“Eloquent, Esha,” Warren said.
“Shut up, Warren—some dead guy wants to cut open my new friend here on a big black rock in hell. Sucks is one of the nicer words to describe it.”
Diana nodded. “So, there’s a spell—probably one that involves my death—that is the key to getting Paulinus out of Erebus?”
“Yes,” Esha said. “I think it is supposed to be an equal exchange. One soul imprisoned so that another can escape. And because you’re the one who put him in Erebus in the first place, your soul is the only one that can get him out. If any soul would work, then he’d have escaped long ago. Hell, most folks in there would be out.”
“So what is Diana supposed to do about it? She has no magic, no way to get to Erebus to kill him. All she can do is look in with Esha’s help,” Cadan said.
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here! I’m not helpless. And I’m sick of you deciding for me.” Her cheeks flushed red. “I killed him the first time—I can do it again if I have to. Which apparently I do.”
“Nay.” It was all Cadan said, but she jerked as if she’d been slapped, then turned to glare at him. He was getting her out of here, and they were going to talk.
“No?” She asked, her voice vibrating with rage. “You dare to tell me no? You have no say over what I do! I know better than to trust you after what you’ve done.”
“What I’ve done?” He was at her side in a second, grasping her arms once again and staring down at her fiercely. She matched his gaze, the dead look in her eyes drowned by rage. “What about you? You’re the one who left!”
He could hear Esha and Warren talking, but through the buzzing in his head couldn’t make out their words.
“Lef—” Diana started to yell back at him, but before she could finish, Esha and her damned feline were at their side. Without warning, she sucked Cadan and Diana through the aether and within seconds. they were standing in his flat in Edinburgh’s Old Town.
“You two have something to work out before we can get any further. Call me when you’re done.” She disappeared.
They stood, breathing heavily, still clasped together.
“Why, Cadan? Why did you lock me away? Why did you take my choice?” She gazed up at him, the questions hanging between them.
Chapter 28