“So the murders … ?”
She made an impatient sound. “I am the fate of death—need you ask?”
“My involvement with this case?”
“Me,” she said.
“My status as a demonologist?”
She guffawed at that. “Definitely me.”
I sucked in my cheeks at the insult in her words. She’d been leading me like a lamb to slaughter.
She cleared her throat. “I’m not going to spend all evening discussing my actions. They mean little except that you are here now, about to fulfill your destiny.”
I swallowed. “What are you going to do to me?”
“What do you think the fate of death is going to do to you? I’m going to deliver you from your flesh.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Andre swiveled around to see Gabrielle’s friend, Oliver, sashay into his room. Guess he hadn’t been taken after all.
“No you’re not,” Andre growled, taking a menacing step towards him. There’d be no survivors tonight except him and Gabrielle—and perhaps Caleb, if the boy had also been taken. Andre sure as hell wasn’t going to put another friend of Gabrielle’s in danger.
“Yes, I am,” the fairy insisted.
A growl of warning rumbled at the back of Andre’s throat. “Don’t push me, fairy. I still haven’t forgiven you for touching her.”
The fairy came right up to him, ignoring all the warning signs that indicated Andre was not to be reckoned with. “I know exactly how long Gabrielle and Caleb have been gone, and I’ll only tell you if you take me with you.”
Andre ground his teeth together. The audacity of this one. It was barely tolerable. “I can get that information from other sources.” Like his servants.
“But you won’t.”
Andre’s nostrils flared in anger. Now was not the time to test his patience.
Oblivious, the fairy plucked the map from Andre’s hand. “So, where are we going?”
“What makes you think I’m going anywhere?”
Oliver lowered the map enough for Andre to see his raised eyebrows. He pointed to himself. “Fairy.”
He’d made his point. Fairies were notorious for involving themselves in everyone else’s business.
“How long were you eavesdropping?” Andre growled.
Oliver gave a shrug of one of his shoulders. A non-answer.
Andre folded his arms, clenching and unclenching his jaw to keep his anger in check. “I will imprison you here if I have to. You are not coming with me.”
The fairy dropped the map and leaned forward, his eyes glittering with interest. “How does she resist you?”
Andre turned from the fairy. He needed to stop talking and get his weapons strapped on. Back holsters for the twin blades that he favored in battle, and a belt to tuck in several throwing knives …
Behind him the fairy shrieked. “Oh my God, I know where we’re going! I always wanted to visit too!”
Damn it all to hell. “You are not going, fairy,” Andre said, opening his closet to retrieve the supple leather gear. He began sliding the back holster over his shoulders when Oliver spoke again.
“This trip will take you hours to reach her. She could be dead by then.”
Andre paused for the barest of moments. Gabrielle, dead. It was unimaginable.
“Take me with you, Andre, and I can get you there in twenty. All you’d need to do is drive us to a certain haunted forest.”
Andre glanced over his shoulder at the fairy. “What, exactly, are you proposing?”
Oliver flashed him a mischievous smile. “I think you already know.”
I’m going to deliver you from your flesh.
That was quite … blunt. And terrifying beyond belief.
“You don’t need to do this,” I said to Morta.
“Of course I do. I’ve been planning this for centuries, for millennia even.”
“Please, there must be another way for you to get what you want. One that doesn’t involve killing me.” Believe in us, believe in free will. Andre’s words ran through my mind.
She laughed and grasped my chin, pressing her fingers into my cheek. “You are Pluto’s unwilling bride, through and through.”
“I’m no one’s bride,” I ground out.
She ignored my response and instead patted my cheek. “Rejoice my dear, for tonight, you ascend. Tonight you become queen of the Underworld.”
Andre pushed his car as fast as it could go, which was still pathetically slow. The storm continued to rage, and the roads were slick with snow and ice. What should’ve been a short drive to Hoia Baciu, the haunted forest on the outskirts of Cluj, was already taking much longer than usual.
This better work.
Next to him Oliver bounced to some song on his iPod, singing along.
Even if he and the fairy pulled this off, they still might be too late. And so help him God, if he was, there would be hell to pay.
Reaching over, Andre pulled out one of the fairy’s earbuds. “You might as well play your music from the speakers,” he said. He could hear the sound just as well from the fairy’s earbuds. At least the car’s acoustics would take away that horrible tinny edge to each song.
“Really?” the fairy said.
Andre glanced at him, then back at the road. He wasn’t going to extend the offer twice.
But then again, the fairy wasn’t one to turn down an opportunity. Oliver synced his iPod to the car’s sound system, and a playlist titled “Kicking Ass and Taking Names,” flashed along Andre’s screen.
At that, Andre smirked. The fairy had style. He’d give him that.
The fairy cranked up the volume and whooped. “Evil bitches beware, we’re coming for you!”
Andre’s grip on the wheel tightened as he sped through a light, his smirk morphing into a sly smile. The thought of all the carnage to come …
Evil beware, indeed. I am coming for you, and I am hungry for your blood.
“What if I don’t want to become queen?” I asked.
“What you want matters little,” Morta replied.
“Well, the devil can go screw himself. I’m not marrying him.”
“Do not speak of him that way,” she hissed.
Tou-chy.