The question was, where would she go to regain her strength and plan her next attack? I needed to strike before anyone else died. I gathered up my athame and Medusa’s mirror and went to kill a goddess.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I stopped at the Dead House to gather my weapons. I’d been home less than five minutes when Hecate’s forces attacked. Demons probed the wards I’d set. Talbot and I had been reinforcing the salt trails as well. I was almost sure our defenses would hold. Almost.
I let out a piercing whistle.
Within minutes, everyone in the camp was outside, ready to fight.
“Whatever you do, don’t let them in!” I shouted. But it was too late. The gate had been forced open and demons streamed through.
Hecate was in the distance, watching the battle with pleasure on her face. She laughed in delight when her two demons grabbed a young wizard and pulled him apart like he was the wishbone after Thanksgiving dinner.
Johnny charged the two demons who still held the bloody remains of the young wizard. He inhaled and sucked the demons’ blood from their bodies without even touching them. Seeing him in action, I readily believed he was related to the Egyptian god of the dead.
As Hecate’s army closed in, I fought to get close enough to her to use the harpy feather, but the demons formed a solid wall around her.
Her bodyguards had fallen. I drew closer. More demons streamed in, blocking my way.
There was a scream. It sounded like Rebecca. Johnny sprinted toward the sound. A demon held Rebecca’s arm on either side.
Johnny Asari’s face turned into a death mask. Even some of the older magicians, who thought they’d seen everything, cringed when they saw him. He charged the two demons, who dropped her as soon as they saw him coming.
Rebecca pivoted and stabbed one of them in the chest. She held an athame. “Little present from dear old dad,” she said. Johnny sucked the life from the other one. He said something to Rebecca, who nodded. Johnny charged back into the fray.
The next half hour was a blur: the smell of demon blood, the sound of a wraith’s scream, and throughout it all, Hecate’s laughter. I lost sight of Naomi, but Claire’s sling bombarded our enemies with exploding pellets.
The ground was slippery with black demon blood, but they kept coming, more demons than I’d ever seen. It was the wraiths that had people running scared. I knew from experience that I had to kill the one who commanded the wraiths before they returned to their graves. If I fell, I would die. My good arm hurt from the repeated motion of jabbing with my athame. I switched and used the stone arm as a club.
Naomi walked among us, but she wasn’t fighting. Her golden scissors flew as she cut threads of fate. Tears trickled from her eyes, but she continued the task.
“Sawyer, are you there?” But there was no answer. I closed my eyes and called to the dead. I called to those I’d loved and those I’d hated and their voices started as only a whisper. I called to them and they came. The dead were all around us.
“Let the dead be heard,” I said. The whispers turned to a deafening roar. Demons all around me fell to their knees and covered their ears.
“Necromancer!” Hecate shrieked. “Your tricks won’t work here.”
Slowly, we gained ground, but I lost sight of the goddess. “Where did Hecate go?”
She had Naomi pinned, surrounded by wraiths. Before I could reach her, Hecate wrapped her hands around Naomi’s neck and squeezed. My cousin’s golden scissors fell to the ground. I raced to her side.
Hecate had killed my aunts, almost killed Naomi. I couldn’t let Hecate live. If I did, she’d come back and try again. Despite my father’s warnings about dark magic, I knew what I had to do. The thought of taking someone’s soul made me hesitate, but I had to use the Prometheus spell my father had taught me.
I cut my right arm and coated the blade of my athame with my blood, then stabbed Hecate in the stomach. It didn’t kill Hecate, but she was bleeding badly. I whispered the words of the Prometheus spell my father had taught me and watched as the dark magic started to work.
She ran. I ran after her. Her demons were being quickly dispatched by the ghosts I’d summoned, we had her items of power, and she was injured. The deck was stacked against her, but I couldn’t let her live.
“Control the magic,” Sawyer said. “Or it will control you.” His presence was stronger here on the battlefield. I could almost see his ghost walking next to me.
There was a soft rush of air near me, like he’d nodded.
I ran after Hecate, branches snagged my clothing as I went. A branch whipped back and hit me like a slap, but I followed her.
As I ran, an almost unbearable feeling of sadness came over me. A strong smell of sulfur wafted through the air. I followed the drops of blood. The wound in her stomach made it easy for me to track her.
She had fallen only feet from the lake. Her hair was lank, her skin a sickly green, but she maintained her regal air as she rose to address me, one hand on her stomach to stem the blood flow.
“It looks like your goons have deserted you, Hecate,” I said.
She ignored my comment. “You took something of mine, son of Fortuna,” she said. “My daughter.”
I gestured to my new stone arm. “You took something of mine, too,” I said. “Seems like it’s only fair that I have something of yours.”
“You are as arrogant as your father,” she said. “Are you as stupid?”
“He’s a better person than you’ll ever be,” I replied.
“It matters not. I’ll bathe in your blood,” she said. “And your precious father cannot stop me.” Her attack was swift and deadly, but my father’s warning had prepared me. She sent a Prometheus spell my way. It was about a thousand times worse than the curse I’d used on Danvers.
I had the Medusa’s mirror in my hand and put it up to deflect her. The spell bounced back and hit her. Hecate was Mesmerized by whatever she saw in its reflection, but it didn’t kill her. It only held her spellbound. It was like watching someone engrossed in a play. The temptation was strong to look into the mirror. What was she seeing? What would I see?
I took out the silver harpy feather. It felt heavy in my hand. Why had Hecate been so desperate to find the harpy feather?
I had only had seconds to decide. I grabbed the silver feather and drove it into Hecate’s heart. Or where her heart would be if she had one.
At first, nothing happened. Hecate smiled at me. Why hadn’t it worked? I was sure the feather was the key to killing a goddess.
In the distance, I heard screams. It sounded like Naomi.
Hecate laughed. “Your friends are dead. My wraiths are eating their hearts as we speak.”
Enraged, I pulled the feather from Hecate’s chest and then stabbed her again. She made a choking sound and slumped over. She raised her hand to strike, but the feather had done its work. Black blood, thick as any demon’s, oozed from the wound. It poured from her mouth, her eyes, and her ears until finally she was drenched in her own blood. She screamed as the blood began to dissolve her skin, tissue, and bones.
It took only minutes before Hecate was gone and only a thick gooey ooze remained.
I wiped her blood from the feather. “I wish you were smaller,” I said. It obediently shrank to the size of a charm.
I hadn’t known it could do that. I’d have to be careful what I said. I put it on my mother’s necklace among the other charms. It was over.
The prophecy had been both right and wrong. The Fates had fallen, but so had Hecate. A new generation of Fates would rise up, but Hecate was gone for good.
A long time later, I walked back to the fort. The demons had been defeated and the wraiths were in a puddle at our feet.
Johnny’s face had returned to normal, but he was breathing hard from the fight. “Jesus, Johnny,” I said. “I had no idea you could do that.”
“Normally, I’m a lover, not a fighter,” he said. “But no one lays a hand on my girl.” His fists clench
ed.
“We might not have made it through without you,” I said.
“I met your dad,” he said. “He kicks ass.”
“My dad?”
“Yeah, Lord of Bones, King of the Underworld, Hades,” he said. “He goes by Doc when he’s topside. He’s your dad, right?”
“Right.” Doc had come back?
“He was right in the middle of it,” Johnny enthused. “Tore off this demon’s head and ate it.”
“Er, yay?”
“Don’t tell me you’re squeamish,” Johnny replied. “I saw you take on a dozen wraiths just now.”
“It doesn’t mean I enjoy killing,” I said. I had a suspicion that Johnny did enjoy it, very much, but without him, we wouldn’t have won.
Doc stumbled into the room. His arms were stained with black demon blood up to his elbows. I knew from experience that demon blood burned.
His eyes were wild, his face splattered with body matter and demon blood. His trench coat was covered in more blood and guts.
“Doc, I heard you took on a legion of demons,” I said. He didn’t answer. His gaze was unfocused and the tremor in his hand was back. In fact, his whole body shook. I eased the coat off to check for injuries. He seemed unharmed, but it was hard to tell because of all the blood.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” I said.
I wet a towel and washed away the blood. I was relieved to see that except for a couple of small cuts on his arm, he was unharmed.
I made him a cup of tea using the small camp stove and offered him a chair. The cup clattered in the saucer as he drank it, but the shaking in his hands gradually stilled.
“I thought you’d left Minneapolis,” I said.
He nodded. “I came back. I couldn’t turn my back on you. Not again.”
“We needed your help,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Did you…?”
I nodded. “Hecate is dead. It’s over.”
We spent the rest of the day burying the dead and healing the living, but something nagged at me. I’d told my father that it was over, but that was a lie. It was almost over.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Hecate had been defeated, her army of demons was dead or in hiding, and her allies were gone. Ambrose was at a meeting, so Talbot and I spent the morning cleaning up Eternity Road. The store was a mess. Tria Prima symbols were sprayed all over the outside of the building, the windows were shattered, and most of the stock was gone. They’d emptied the cash register, but left it. It was probably too heavy to move.
Harvey the bear still stood in the corner. He was bedraggled and smelled like wet bear, but was otherwise untouched.
“The store wouldn’t be the same without Harvey,” I said. I took a hair dryer and brush to the bear’s fur. “Much better.”
Talbot handed me a pointy wizard hat embellished with stars.
I put it on Harvey and then stepped back to survey my handiwork.
Talbot looked around the store. “Almost like it never happened.”
“Almost,” I replied. I looked at my watch. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. I’m late for the meeting.”
I pulled up in front of Hell’s Belles, which sported a fresh coat of paint and new windows. Bernie had reopened for breakfast the day after Hecate was defeated.
Since Parsi Enterprise’s assets consisted of a destroyed corporate office and Hell’s Belles, we held our first corporate meeting in my favorite booth at the restaurant.
I was late for lunch. My family was already huddled in a booth. Naomi had an untouched salad in front of her, Rebecca sipped her tea contemplatively, and Claire doodled something in the Book of Fates.
Naomi scooted over to make room for me in the booth. Bernie slid a pot of coffee in front of me. I poured a cup and chugged it, ignoring how it scalded my throat on the way down.
“How’s it going, Bernie?” I asked.
“Better, son of Fortuna,” she replied. “Much better.” There was almost a smile in her sad basset hound eyes.
“Rough night?” Rebecca asked.
“The roughest,” I replied. “I watched a chick flick with Talbot and Naomi.”
“What happened with Wren?” Naomi asked. “Did you let her go?” I hadn’t had time to tell her what I’d done before we’d been attacked.
I shook my head.
“But I didn’t cut her thread,” Naomi said.
“You didn’t have to.” I hadn’t even thought of that possibility. I was doubly glad I’d let Wren live.
“So she’s alive?” Claire asked. I gave her a sharp look. She and Wren had spent months together in the underworld, but she seemed disappointed that Wren wasn’t dead.
“It’s done,” I said. “She won’t bother us anymore.” At least I hoped not. Sometimes, even kindness had a cost.
My sister gave me a round of applause, but Naomi wiped away a tear. “I know it had to happen,” she said. “There’s no chance she’ll break free?”
I shook my head. Wren was alive but frozen. Hecate was dead. There was no one left who would free her, not even her own sister, especially if I didn’t tell Naomi where she was.
“What now?” Claire asked.
We’d been so busy fighting for our lives that none of us had given any thought to the future. Probably because we didn’t think there would be one.
“It can’t be like before,” I burst out. “The Fates thought they knew better.”
“It won’t be,” Naomi promised. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“We need to figure out if the job of Atropos can be reassigned,” I said firmly.
“I’ll do it,” Rebecca said.
Everyone stared at her.
“I’m the daughter of Hades, after all,” she said. “And Johnny said he’d help me.”
“You’d do that for me?” Naomi asked. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Don’t get all teary-eyed,” Rebecca replied. “We haven’t even figured out how to make it happen. Or if it can happen.”
“It’ll happen,” I said. “We’ll make sure of it.”
“Promise me one thing,” Naomi said gravely.
“What?”
“That we’ll do better than they did.”
“We can try,” Claire said.
“We can succeed,” Rebecca corrected her.
“When I first came to Minneapolis, I was alone.” My mother’s face came to my mind, but instead of the image of her as she lay dying, I saw a picture of her smiling and at peace.
“And now?”
“Now I have a family,” I said. “I am truly fortunate. Together, we can change the way the Fates operate.”
We sat at the booth and made new rules. After all, we were a new generation of Fates. It was time to do things differently. It was time to do it our way.
Chapter Forty
Doc came by Eternity Road, which was up and running thanks to Fitch and his magical elves. Ambrose and Talbot were bringing up stock from the basement, which had been overlooked during the looting. A few magicians had even, shamefacedly, brought back a few items, telling me that they’d “found” them.
Minneapolis, the mortal and the magical, gradually returned to normal. Crews painted over the Tria Prima symbols with heavy white paint, erasing the signs of Hecate until from the outside, no one would have known she’d even been there.
Talbot and his dad had refused to move the store to a new location. The graffiti had been painted over, the windows repaired, and the store completely restored. There were scars, but the city rejoiced when Eternity Road announced the grand reopening.
Rebecca and I were tidying up for the event when Doc walked in. His trench coat was gone. Instead, he wore a black suit, white shirt, and a red tie patterned with tiny white flowers. His shoes had been ferociously polished.
“Hello, Daddy,” she said. I snickered and she punched me on the shoulder.
“Rebecca, it’s good to see you getting along with your brother.”
He made it sound like we w
ere squabbling teenagers, but maybe to him, we were.
“What’s up, Doc?” I’d been dying to say that since I met him. He looked blank when Rebecca chuckled.
“I’m leaving Minneapolis,” he said.
“You’re not staying for the reopening?” Rebecca asked.
“Where will you go?”
My father put a hand on my shoulder. His hand was steady. “Where I belong. I’m going to take back my kingdom of the dead. There will always be a place for you in the underworld. For both of you.”
“Thank you, but I belong here.” I stuck out my good hand, but instead, he folded me into a brief hug.
He embraced Rebecca, who looked like she didn’t know whether to kick him or kiss him. She settled for a kiss on the cheek. Doc slipped out of Eternity Road, his shoulders straight. We went to the window to watch him until he disappeared from sight.
“You know,” Rebecca said thoughtfully, “he may have redeemed himself after all.”
“Anything’s possible,” I said.
Talbot and I put out food and booze. My cousins and sister were supposed to be helping, but Claire had disappeared the minute Carlos arrived. Naomi sat in a comfy chair that Talbot had brought down from his apartment.
“Did we really need all these decorations?” I asked, hitting a balloon and sending it floating to the ceiling.
“Naomi, Claire, and Rebecca spent half the night decorating,” Talbot said. “I wouldn’t touch a streamer.”
I smiled at him. “We have something to celebrate,” I said.
“We do?” he replied. “I mean, I think so, but I’m surprised you do.”
“Of course I do,” I told him. “We survived.”
Carlos and Claire came out from the stockroom, giggling madly. Rebecca was on the phone with Johnny. Talbot and Naomi were on opposite sides of the room, but he couldn’t stop looking at her.
Everyone was paired up, in love. Except me. I thought about slipping away, jumping in the Caddy and driving wherever the road led, but then my sister slipped her arm in mine.
“You’re not alone,” Rebecca said.
“How did you know what I was thinking?”