Past-Death slept fitfully. She’d had what humans called nightmares. They were awful. She was running from someone in the forest and instead of helping her, Gabriel would only watch. Then there were those where Darkyn was stripping off her skin and sucking her blood. She hadn’t been able to wake up, and the sensations felt too real.
When she awoke, she was relieved but tired. She stretched and climbed out of bed. The room was chilly, the marble flooring freezing. Deidre hopped from foot to foot before realizing she could put on socks. She didn’t have a sock warmer in her room – something Cora called a toaster – but the socks were better than the floor.
Only when able to tolerate the floor did she cross to the French doors. She’d left them partially open, and the morning air was cold as it swept through her room. She pushed the door closed and stood, shivering, and gazed at the green glow visible even during daylight.
“This is totally fucked up,” she murmured, shaking her head. Even if she wasn’t Death anymore, she could gauge just how bad things were. She cocked her head to the side and filtered through her memories.
What she recalled was a pittance of what she had known as a goddess. She mourned the loss of all she’d ever learned or known. But she remembered everything from the past twenty-six years. Significant events of the human world, deals with deities, Immortal dealings. Was there anything remaining of her memory that might help Gabriel? Make him want to trust her?
She padded around her room for her morning routine, thoughtful. The crushing emotions from yesterday were more tolerable today. All she had to do was find a way to prevent them from crippling her logic for now. She wished with all her heart she could package them back up and put them back wherever they’d been when she was a deity.
She needed to think. She hadn’t outsmarted generations of deities and Immortals while laden with emotions, but she had still done it. She just had to get control of herself and be proactive, the way she was a mere three days before. She could help Gabriel and the souls, even if her whole world crashed at the end of the week.
When she was dressed and ready, she left her room and walked through the fortress to the bottom floor. Andre took her to the garden the morning before, and that’s where she went this time. Stationed outside her room, Cora trailed her at a distance, silent and darkly dressed, like a shadow.
Deidre paced through the garden, not really interested in the blooming flowers, statuary or neat rows of hedges. Instead, she concentrated on figuring out what knowledge she could about the souls in the lake. How was it possible they were in the mortal realm? Why were they cast out of the underworld?
She stopped in front of a small mural depicting a triangle with a form at each of the points.
Human, Immortal, Deity.
Her eyes rested on the figure of a girl representing the humans. Reluctantly, her thoughts returned to the human she’d left in Hell.
She’d dreamt of human-Deidre, too. Those dreams were the worst. In them, she had been the human trapped in Hell being bled and tortured daily by Darkyn. Even if she managed to save the souls and win Gabriel, the truth was going to ruin everything.
Unless she could make the truth … bearable. Different.
“Cora, can you ask Gabriel if I can go to a …um, mall today?” she asked, turning.
Cora stepped forward. “Mall? You’ve got demons after you.”
“I need more shoes and I can’t call a portal.”
Cora shook her head. She let out a sigh and summoned a portal. She disappeared into it. Deidre waited until the portal closed then bolted out of the gardens.
She ran outside the walls of the fortress into the forest. Only when she was panting did she stop and look back to make certain no one from the castle could see her.
“Darkyn,” she called. She waited.
He didn’t come at first, and she frowned, assuming he was messing with her. The Dark One never missed an opportunity to prey on someone. She turned to leave, suspecting she didn’t have much time before Cora returned and raised the alarm about her being gone.
Darkyn stood behind her. Deidre jumped back, gasping.
“Gods, Darkyn!” she belted. “Why must you do that?”
“I take pleasure in knowing you can’t sense me anymore, love,” he replied with a half-smile.
“You’ve been there since I summoned you.”
He nodded.
Deidre shifted, aware again that she was now defenseless against the creatures that used to either fear her or at least, respect her power. A head taller than her, he was lean and calm, his black eyes missing nothing. It struck her that his way of doing business was strange. His predecessor lulled people into trusting him with charisma and magic.
Darkyn was the opposite: aggressive. He never tried to hide what he was. He sank his teeth into someone and never let go, until they were in Hell. He was the unpredictable, violent creature she always considered him in battle but not in dealing. Here, he was calm and calculating. Predatory.
“How can I be of service?” he asked.
His polite address terrified her. He was treating her the way he did every other hapless, foolish, unsuspecting human he pulled down to Hell. Which meant he was likely aware of what it would take to condemn her and was waiting for his opening. With no magic, she had to be more careful when dealing with him.
“I wanted to know if Deidre is still alive,” she said.
“How is that your concern?”
“It’s not necessarily,” she admitted. “I simply want to know.”
Darkyn’s gaze never left hers. He was assessing. She willed her mind not to betray her, aware he could read her too easily now that she was human.
“For now,” he said.
Deidre wasn’t certain if that was good or not. Was it worse to be alive in Hell at his mercy or slaughtered by the Dark One?
“She’s … okay?”
Darkyn smiled coldly. Deidre swallowed hard, images from her nightmares returning.
“You can ensure she stays alive and relatively okay,” he offered. “How important is it to you?”
“No,” she said quickly. “No deals.”
“So it’s not important to you that the woman Gabriel loves stays alive,” he said.
Deidre bit her tongue to keep from taking the bait.
“I find it fascinating that you and Wynn profess to care yet aren’t willing to deal,” Darkyn mused. “Must be some emotional failing.”
“Self-preservation, I think,” she said. “If I thought you’d give me a fair deal, I’d consider it.”
“Maybe you prefer her dead,” he continued.
“No,” she said before she could stop herself.
“It would remove the obstacle between you and your mate.”
“You answered my question. That’s all I wanted to know.”
“Very well.” He turned as if to leave then stopped. “I wonder. How is your deal with her going?”
“How is that your concern?” she asked mockingly.
“I have an interest in the outcome.”
“Not until the deal is up,” she said.
Darkyn circled her, pretending to consider. She did her best to stay cool and detached, the way she would have if she were still a goddess.
“You are doing well at ensuring my mate wins,” he stated. “I don’t think you need my help in that area.”
The human side of her hated his tone and the truth of his words more. She was fucking up without the help of the Dark One that wanted her to lose.
“Then again, I’m known for ensuring I win at all costs,” he added. “Would revealing your secret to him make him pity you or drive him away?”
“Whatever you want from me, you won’t get it,” she snapped. “I’m not making a deal with you. Ever.”
“Maybe that tune will change when you lose your soul in four days.”
“You also know Gabriel won’t kill me even if I do lose. You will have to wait for my soul to come to her.” Deidre glared at h
im. He was pleased with himself.
“What if something happens to you at the end of the deal?”
“Something like you kidnapping me, killing me and claiming my soul?” she challenged.
“It has a nice sound to it, doesn’t it?”
“Except your mate would get my soul, not you.”
“Because she bears you less ill will than I do?” Darkyn responded. “Because you didn’t dump her in Hell with the most violent demon in Hell?”
Deidre said nothing. She never realized how easily he read those around him until he was throwing her thoughts into her face. Human Deidre was probably terrified, a bloody mess who would do whatever Darkyn told her at the end of the week in exchange for him sparing her more pain.
“I can summon her,” she said suddenly. “What makes you think I won’t tell Gabe, summon her and he’ll claim her?” At least, she could when Gabriel let her access the portals again.
“Insurance.”
Deidre frowned, confused. Darkyn wasn’t afraid of anything she might do. She didn’t understand exactly why, except that Gabe was locked out of the underworld. Even if they got human-Deidre away from Darkyn, Darkyn could find and reclaim her anywhere she was hidden, outside of Death’s underworld.
“By the end of the week, she won’t want Gabriel anyway. You’ll be stuck with your mess and no soul,” he said.
Her eyes widened. “That I’d almost make a deal about. Unless you’re using magic on her, there’s no way any woman – Immortal, deity or human – would ever choose to stay with you.”
The demon lord bristled visibly for a split second, long enough to tell her she hit a nerve.
“We’ll see, won’t we?” he asked, relaxing. “Fortunately, I’m not the one with my soul on the line.”
Deidre studied him, unable to determine what was going on with him and the human he’d kept in Hell. Human-Deidre was alive, if nothing else. Darkyn spoke as if he intended for her to remain that way, at least through the end of the deal.
What condition Darkyn’s mate was in was not something past-Death wanted to think about. It made her feel ill.
“A visit to Gabriel seems to be in order,” Darkyn said. “You’re fucking up fine, but … sometimes it pays to be doubly sure.”
“No, don’t,” she said, gritting her teeth. “You think I won’t tell him. You’re wrong.”
“Am I?”
She was quiet for a moment, grappling with emotions that kept clouding her judgment. It was dangerous to deal with Darkyn when emotional.
“You will do the opposite of what the human you created would,” Darkyn said. “Perhaps you belong in Hell, not her.”
She flushed.
“When you want to deal, summon me. Otherwise, don’t waste my time.” The demon lord strode into a portal, leaving her angry and no closer to alleviating her remorse.
Deidre blew out air in frustration then looked around. She was so tense, her shoulders ached. She shrugged them and glanced back the way she came. No part of her wanted to be cooped up right now. She had to find a way to help Gabe.
Darkyn was right. She wasn’t going to reveal her secret unless she had to. Perhaps when she lost her soul at the end of the week or maybe, if she could help him recover his underworld, she’d tell Gabriel then. She had to wait for the right moment, when she wouldn’t risk losing him.
She paused mid-step. The thoughts made her feel worse. She couldn’t think about human-Deidre, powerless and vulnerable in the hands of the most violent demon in Hell. Then again, Darkyn was right. As guilty as she felt, she wasn’t willing to make a deal with him to protect the human she’d condemned. Because if she did, she’d lose what little she had left.
Past-Death began walking again. She was unaware of where she went until a death dealer faded from the surrounding forest. He didn’t confront her, but he startled her. She slowed, hating that she no longer had the heightened senses of a deity. No one had ever been able to sneak up on her before, and now, it seemed like everyone did. The human senses that made her gasp at the colors of spring flowers were also ill-made to defend them against Immortals and deities.
The death dealer didn’t challenge her, instead melting back into the forest shadows.
Deidre reached the earthly version of the Lake of Souls. She always experienced a sense of peace around the souls. Perhaps it was the knowledge they were safe because of her. No deity or Immortal or living human ever welcomed or accepted Death, but the souls always had.
She went to the edge of the lake and peered into it. Seating herself on a low bank, she studied the souls. They were green, glowing and healthy. They didn’t suffer, which was good. The only problem seemed to be that they were somehow trapped on the mortal plane.
“There are so many,” she murmured, dismayed by the green glow over the lake. It wasn’t a natural phenomenon.
Losing a soul was always a possibility. Sometimes even she had put one in her pocket and forgotten to drop it in the lake for weeks. But how did one misplace or lose millions? Possibly billions?
“Deidre!” Cora sounded frantic.
She glanced over her shoulder. The female death dealer was exiting a portal.
“Don’t leave without me,” Cora lectured. “I’m under strict orders to keep you safe.”
“I can do as I wish,” Deidre snapped in response. She pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the death dealer’s glare. “These souls. Are they all new? Or did they cross over from the underworld?”
Cora frowned. When she didn’t answer, Deidre faced her.
“Look, I may not be Death, but I’m his mate. Tell me.”
“Gods. We don’t know,” Cora responded. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it does.”
“All we know is that they appeared in over fifty lakes across the world. Gabe had us gather them all and place them here near the Immortals.”
“So they crossed over.”
“Maybe. We haven’t been able to collect souls for very long. We didn’t have the ability to gather this many.”
Deidre gritted her teeth, silently cursing everyone under the sun for not keeping better track of the souls. Maybe Gabe was right; maybe this was partially her fault for breaking too many Immortal Laws at once.
“I feel like I should know how to fix things,” she muttered. “It’s in here somewhere.” She tapped her temple.
She remembered what caused the dome of her underworld to crack. If it happened before and she fixed it, she couldn’t recall. Her eyes went to the sky instinctively.
The souls crossed over into mortal lakes, after the dome of her underworld cracked, and she resigned. How were the two connected?
“Gabriel said no more shoes,” Cora said.
“Fine.”
Deidre ignored the grunt the death dealer gave her in response. She moved once more to the edge of the lake and stared at the souls. Most of them rested in piles at the bottom of the lake while some floated in the water. They moved slowly to the bank on which she stood, bumped into the dirt wall and floated to nestle into piles at the bottom.
The deliberate dance was methodical. She watched it for a few seconds, entranced by the movement. The green gems were caught in some sort of invisible current that ended when it reached the bank. A few floated away until caught by another current while others settled nearby.
Her instinct wriggled. Deidre sought to figure out what it was about the currents and subtle movement that kept her in place when she wanted to return to the castle, where it was warm. She found herself walking along the bank, gaze on the souls that were moving. The panhandle fed into the roughly circular main body of the lake, and she paused. More gems swirled in the lake, seemingly at random.
But they weren’t.
Lake of Souls bubbling.
That issue, she should understand how to fix. Maybe, at one time, she did. Mesmerized by the souls, Deidre stopped in place suddenly. She didn’t understand what her instincts were trying to tell her, but rig
ht now, they wanted her to climb a tree to see the lake from above.
Striding to a tree, she barked an order.
“Tree, up!”
It didn’t respond like the ones in her underworld would. She touched a branch gingerly, uncertain if the trees here were sensitive to touch or not. When it didn’t fling her, she moved closer and gripped a low branch. With effort, Deidre hauled herself up onto a branch, wrapped her legs around it in a careful balancing act then stretched upward for the next. She continued in that fashion until she was a good fifteen feet off the ground. It wasn’t high enough for her to see exactly what she wanted, but she was tired from effort.
“These are the laziest trees in any of the worlds,” she complained, not caring what the tree thought of her.
Deidre looped her arm through branches and leaned out as far as she could to see the lake.
The movements that seemed random when standing beside the lake were lazily coordinated from above. She could see the paths of currents. They moved like pinwheels around the mound of souls in the center of the lake. The starting point was on the near side of the lake. The movements seemed to start there, circle around the lake then drop, as if there was an invisible wall.
It meant something, but she didn’t know what.
“What’re you doing?” Cora sounded exasperated.
Deidre shifted to see the woman standing below. She carefully began the trip down the tree. Dropping the last few feet to the ground, she regained her balance.
“I am not pleased by these mortal plants. They’re beautiful but useless,” she grumbled. “Any idea why the currents run the direction they do in the lake?”
“No.” The death dealer was gazing at her intently.
“Did you notice the currents in the lake?”
“No. I’m sure Gabe did.”
Deidre almost rolled her eyes but stopped herself. It was good that Cora had faith in Gabriel when he was losing death dealers who no longer believed in him. Cora was a good woman, and Gabriel needed those in his life.
“There are no currents in the Lake of Souls,” she told Cora. “Do you know what this means that there are here?”
“No.”
“Me neither.” Deidre strode to the edge of the lake again. She wiped away the pine needles clinging to her clothes.
Cora joined her on the bank. They stood in silence.
“Currents,” Cora repeated. “There’s no river feeding into this lake. Could be an underground spring or river or something causing them to move.”
“They’re moving in patterns,” Deidre said. “This way, around the center of the lake.” She drew a circle in the air.
Underground spring. She felt it again, a sense that this should mean more than it did.
“The souls just appeared,” she murmured. “In lakes. With currents.”
A gem bubbled to the top of the lake then dropped down, rejoining the rest of them beneath the surface. Deidre cocked her head to the side.
The Lake of Souls in her underworld was always still. What made it bubble? It was a sign that her power was weakening, just like the cracking of the sky in the underworld’s dome. The demons had been able to enter her realm when the sky broke apart.
Cracking of the sky.
“Cora, I think I understand,” she said. As her excitement grew, she spoke faster. “The dome cracked and the demons came through. What if the lake cracked, too, and the souls went the other way, out of the underworld and into the mortal realm?”
Cora stared at her then out at the lake.
“You’re saying there are fifty cracks in the Lake of Souls?”
“The Lake of Souls is much larger than any lake on the mortal world. Maybe it cracked the plane between the two.”
“Is that possible?”
“I don’t know. Why not?” Deidre couldn’t remember it ever happening before, but it almost made sense to her. “We have to see for sure.”
“How?”
“Swimming.”
Cora’s eyes were on the lake. Deidre saw more than interest in them. She saw hope. Cora was loyal to Gabriel but wanted to go home, and right now, the only way there was through Darkyn. For the first time in her life, Deidre pitied the death dealers. They were caught in an impossible position: stay loyal to Gabriel and maybe never see the underworld again or deal with the Dark One to return home.
“Can you swim?” Cora asked.
“It can’t be that hard.” She trotted to the spot she’d identified from the tree as being where the currents appeared to originate from.
Cora rolled her eyes. She tugged off her weapons and stripped down to her bra and pants. Deidre was too cold to shed her clothing beyond her jacket but did take off her shoes. The cool mountain air made her shiver. She touched the water of the lake and groaned. It was colder than her marble floor!
Tying her hair back, she pulled off her socks, took a deep breath and dove into the frigid lake.
“Wait for –“ Cora’s words were swallowed by the shock of the cold water.
Chapter Seven