House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City, #2)

They could, of course, say that they had been fighting Ophion, but there was a chance that the Hind would decide this was the moment to reveal what she knew.

“Hold on to me,” Hunt warned, reaching for Bryce as something crept out of the shadows behind Urd’s throne.

A black dog. Massive, with fangs as long as Hunt’s hand.

The Helhound motioned to the throne with a clawed paw. Then he vanished behind it.

There was no time to think. Hunt scooped up Bryce and ran, ducking low through the shadows between the altar and the dais, praying no one saw them in the chaos and smoke—

He whipped behind the throne to find the space empty. No sign of Baxian.

A growl came behind him, and Hunt whirled to the back of the throne. It wasn’t solid stone at all, but an open doorway, leading into a narrow stairwell.

Hunt didn’t question their luck as he sprinted through the stone doorway. Baxian, now in angelic form, shoved it shut behind him. Sealing them entirely in darkness.

Baxian lit the tight steps downward with his phone. Hunt held on to Bryce. From the way she clung to him, he wasn’t entirely certain she could walk.

“I heard Pollux give the order to come here over the radio,” Baxian said, hurrying ahead, wings rustling. Hunt let the male lead, glancing behind them to ensure the door didn’t open. But the seal was perfect. Not so much as a crack of light shone. “Given how pissed Pippa was after Ydra, I figured it was you lot involved. I researched the history of this temple. Found rumors about the door hidden in the throne. It’s what took me some time—finding the tunnel entrance in. Some priestess must have used it recently, though. Her scent was all over the alley and fake wall that leads in here.”

Hunt and Bryce said nothing. That was twice now that Baxian had interfered to save them from the Hind and Pollux. And now Pippa.

“Is Spetsos dead?” Baxian asked, as they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered a long tunnel.

“Don’t know,” Hunt grunted. “She probably escaped and left her people to die.”

“Lidia will be pissed she didn’t catch her, but Pollux seemed to be enjoying himself,” Baxian said, shaking his head. They walked until they hit a crossroads flanked by skulls and bones placed in tiny alcoves. Catacombs. “I don’t think they had any clue you were there,” Baxian went on, “though how they got tipped off—”

Bryce moved, so fast Hunt didn’t have time to stop her from dropping out of his arms.

To stop her from unslinging her rifle and pointing it at Baxian. “Stop right there.”

Bryce wiped the blood dripping from her nose on her shoulder as she aimed the rifle at the Helhound, paused in the catacombs’ crossroads.

Her head pounded relentlessly, her mouth felt as dry as the Psamathe Desert, and her stomach was a churning eddy of bile. She was never teleporting again. Never, ever, ever.

“Why the fuck do you keep popping up?” Bryce seethed, not taking her attention off the Helhound. Hunt didn’t so much as move at her side. “Hunt says you’re not spying for the Hind or the Asteri, but I don’t fucking believe it. Not for one second.” She clicked off the safety. “So tell me the gods-damned truth before I put this bullet through your head.”

Baxian walked to one of the curved walls full of skulls. Didn’t seem to care that he was a foot away from the barrel of her gun. He ran a finger down the brown skull of what seemed to be some fanged Vanir, and said, “Through love, all is possible.”

The rifle nearly tumbled from her fingers. “What?”

Baxian peeled back the collar of his battle-suit, revealing brown, muscled flesh. And a tattoo scrawled over the angel’s heart in familiar handwriting.

Through love, all is possible.

She knew that handwriting. “Why,” she asked carefully, voice shaking, “do you have Danika’s handwriting tattooed on you?”

Baxian’s dark eyes became pained. Empty. “Because Danika was my mate.”





65

Bryce aimed the rifle at Baxian again. “You are a fucking liar.”

Baxian left his collar open, Danika’s handwriting inked there for all to see. “I loved her. More than anything.”

Hunt said harshly, words echoing in the dry catacombs around them, “This isn’t fucking funny, asshole.”

Baxian turned pleading eyes to him. Bryce wanted to claw the male’s face off. “She was my mate. Ask Sabine. Ask her why she ran the night she burst into your apartment. She’s always hated and feared me—because I saw how she treated her daughter and wouldn’t put up with it. Because I’ve promised to turn her into carrion one day for what Danika endured. That’s why Sabine left the party last night so fast. To avoid me.”

Bryce didn’t lower the gun. “You’re full of shit.”

Baxian splayed his arms, wings rustling. “Why the fuck would I lie about this?”

“To win our trust,” Hunt said.

Bryce couldn’t get a breath down. It had nothing to do with the teleporting. “I would have known. If Danika had a mate, I would have known—”

“Oh? You think she would have told you that her mate was someone in Sandriel’s triarii? The Helhound? You think she’d have run home to dish about it?”

“Fuck you,” Bryce spat, focusing the scope right between his eyes. “And fuck your lies.”

Baxian walked up to the gun. To the barrel. Pushed it down and against his heart, right up against the tattoo in Danika’s handwriting. “I met her two years before she died,” he said quietly.

“She and Thorne—”

Baxian let out a laugh so bitter it cracked her soul. “Thorne was delusional to think she’d ever be with him.”

“She fucked around,” Bryce seethed. “You were no one to her.”

“I had two years with her,” Baxian said. “She didn’t fuck anyone else during that time.”

Bryce stilled, doing the mental tally. Right before her death, hadn’t she teased Danika about …

“Two years,” she whispered. “She hadn’t gone on a date in two years.” Hunt gaped at her now. “But she …” She racked her memory. Danika had hooked up constantly throughout college, but a few months into their senior year and the year after … She’d partied, but stopped the casual sex. Bryce choked out, “It’s not possible.”

Baxian’s face was bleak, even in the dimness of the catacombs. “Believe me, I didn’t want it, either. But we saw each other and knew.”

Hunt murmured, “That’s why your behavior changed. You met Danika right after I left.”

“It changed everything for me,” Baxian said.

“How did you even meet each other?” Bryce demanded.

“There was a gathering of wolves—Pangeran and Valbaran. The Prime sent Danika as his emissary.”

Bryce remembered that. How pissed Sabine had been that Danika had been tapped to go, and not her. Two weeks later, Danika had come back, and she’d seemed subdued for a few days. She’d said it was exhaustion but …

“You’re not a wolf. Why were you even there?” Danika couldn’t have been with Baxian, couldn’t have had a mate and not told her about it, not smelled like it—