My utility to her was starting to become clear. She’d needed me to bring them to her. A messenger, working for her.
A lump rose in my throat, and I shook my head. I’d rid the earth of the horsemen. I’d protected it from archangels who wanted to slaughter us all. Was I about to undo that spell—just for one man? Adonis would never approve of it. A small sacrifice to save the larger numbers. But I needed a different kind of morality. I needed good to triumph over evil. I needed the heroes to live.
One last chance. “I want to leave here, and I want to take Adonis with me.’
She snarled, long canines protruding. Claws emerged from the tips of her hands—long and curled, the color of aged tree bark.
The goddess was going a bit feral before me, and I took a step back from her in the icy water. My skull ached for the stones like a parched throat aches for water.
I could do it. I could use the stones’ power for myself…
Snarling, the goddess lunged for me. I darted back, pressing the stones against my forehead, and my skin soaked them up.
My own voice echoed in my skull. Gods don’t run from themselves, Ruby.
All at once, the rock around me seemed to fall away, and I was standing in the park in New York. Blood spattered the ground near my feet. I recognized this scene. This was the day the world ended, the day the Great Nightmare had begun.
I didn’t want to look up. I knew what I’d see there—the dragon ripping Marcus to shreds. An unseen force gripped my chin, forcing me to lift my head.
Before me, a shadow loomed over Marcus, and the reptilian stench of ancient caves and rock dust pooled in the air. I whirled, just in time to see the dragon lunge.
I screamed a warning, but it was too late.
My world tilted as the dragon clamped Marcus in its jaws, teeth piercing his flesh. Blood streamed over the pavement, glistening in the afternoon light. My chest clenched with pure, raw panic.
Screaming, I leapt into the air, trying to get a grip on the dragon, but it was too tall for me, and my fingers slipped off its scales. I can’t protect him. I slammed back down onto the ground, knocking the back of my head on the pavement.
With Marcus’s body clamped in his jaws, the dragon shook his head back and forth, red streaming from his teeth.
Frantic, I hurled my knife at the dragon’s eye. Somehow, I managed to hit it just at the edge of the iris, even as it flailed its head around.
I tried to slam the iron door down on the memory, tried to fight my way out of this hell, but there was no escape.
The dragon tossed Marcus into the air. Blood poured from his chest, his ribs. It’s too late.
I screamed, not hearing my own voice.
I couldn’t look down, couldn’t stare at what the dragon was doing to Marcus. I had to bury those thoughts, lock them up in a mental coffin—but it wasn’t working now. I had to see it, had to look at what had happened. The dragon had ripped through his ribs, his spine. His blood pooled over the pavement…
Until nothing was left of him but a pile of ash.
Ruby. Who do you believe the real monster is?
I started shaking my head, unwilling to make meaning from this. I heaved a sob. “I don’t know what you mean.”
The world around me fell away again. For just a moment, I glimpsed the dragons—a flash of blonde hair and flailing limbs. Teeth ripping at her flesh, her pale arms...
The image faded as soon as it had come, leaving me in the dark. I sucked in a sharp breath. Is that what I’d been imagining all this time? I hadn’t been there when dragons had killed my parents—long before the Great Nightmare had begun. It wasn’t a memory. And yet this image of blood on the pavement kept hammering at my skull, the piercing, red-hot staccato...
From the darkness, light bloomed around me. My mother towered over me. She was gripping my arm, trying to pull me into the house. She looked scared. Why was it so important to her that I stay inside?
Her blonde hair flowed over her shoulders, and I wanted to pull her outside. Spring blossomed in the air around us—the fae spring. February. Eimmal.
My canines lengthened, and a feral growl tore from my throat. Hunt. Kill. Stop the heart.
“Ruby!” my mom screamed, frantically tugging on my arm. “You need to get inside the house!”
Light shone brightly off the house’s metal siding.
Her words began to blur into the red mist in my mind, lost in a haze of moss and peat, until I only knew that she was prey. My teeth sank into her arm, hot blood pulsing in my mouth, flesh tearing...
Blood streaming over the pavement.
It wasn’t until strong arms pulled me off her that I saw what I’d done, that I heard my dad screaming my name. That I saw the horrified look in my parents’ faces, as they realized what I was. A monster. They weren’t as feral as I was.
The image faded, leaving me again in the dank cave. The stones had disappeared from my fingers, but their light seemed to pulse through my blood. A deep, throbbing rhythm thrummed around me.
Vines slithered from the ground, curling around my feet, my ankles—then penetrating my skin. Sharp pain splintered my body, shooting up my bones. My ribs, my skull fractured with the pain, and a flash of sunlight blinded me—burning away the image of blood staining the pavement. At last, the vines receded again, freeing my body. I gasped with relief.
Ancient, primal power surged in my veins. I opened my eyes again, and pale blue light blazed from within my skin. I wasn’t alone anymore. Around me, shimmering forms moved—just wisps of scintillating outlines—shoulders and hair and fingers that glimmered like phosphorescence in the ocean.
The souls of the underworld—each with their own scent.
I licked my canines, my hunter’s instincts propelling me forward through the dank cave. I’d come here for Adonis, and I was going to find him. Already, the theta on my shoulder tingled, as if summoning me closer.
I broke into a sprint, running through the shallow waters as they rose around me. I followed the alluring scent of myrrh. Light blazed from the gleaming crown around my head.
Gods rule the realms of the dead.
In the far recesses of the cave, I found them—the four horsemen, lurking together—each one distinct by his smell, his aura. Four horsemen, their forms translucent. Adonis’s blue eyes shone in the darkness. His eyes widened in surprise.
I homed in on Adonis, grabbing him by the hand, and pulled him closer to me—and his hand felt like pure warmth within mine. Light flowed from my body around his soul, wrapping us closer. “You’re coming with me.”
Those deep, blue eyes burned into me, shock written all over them.
Water rushed higher and higher around me, covering my body and surging over my skin. I lost my grip on Adonis, completely submerged in the icy waters--until at last, my head breached the surface. The water receded around me, and I pushed myself to my feet, frantically looking around for Adonis.
And there—at the cave’s mouth—he stood with sunlight silhouetting his body. Alive again.