Sin & Lightning (Demigods of San Francisco Book 5) Read online

  I pushed my spirit sense as far out as I could, looking for souls. I found two, Donovan and Thane, stationary, ahead of us but clearly waiting. The lack of any other souls in the area indicated we’d be hiking the rest of the way.

  Jack stared at me.

  “Don’t lecture me,” I said into the sudden hush.

  “Kieran doesn’t need a wow factor at the Summit,” he said, not at all what I thought he’d say. “He does need more people guarding his back, but they don’t have to be exceptional. They just have to be good. Once he gets into the politics of everything, he’ll bring the wow factor himself. He’s as good as his father ever was—maybe better.”

  I shook my head slowly, my stomach churning. “Maybe if I wasn’t in the picture, sure. Maybe if I wasn’t marked. But I change things, Jack. You must see that. My magic, the fact that all of the Demigods of Hades want me—hell, anyone who needs an assassin wants me—puts more pressure on Kieran. Strip me away and he can slowly build up his empire. Who would bother to stop him? Keep me in the picture and he’s basically at war with two, maybe three established Demigods and a plethora of treasure seekers. He doesn’t just need wow, like the ladies said—he needs an incredibly potent, somewhat rare arsenal to keep his growing list of enemies at bay. Or he needs to get rid of me.”

  “He’d never get rid of you. Don’t even talk like that.”

  “Exactly. So I need to help where I can, and apparently I’m a weirdo charmer. Worst case, I can drop this giant sonuvabitch before he kills and eats us.”

  “Not if he drops a rock on your head.”

  “Donovan is up ahead. Surely he can use his magic to hold the rock up so we can scramble away. If we get desperate, Thane can go Berserk on him.”

  Jack started, looking ahead. “Has everyone lost their minds?”

  “No.” I swung the door open and accidentally slammed it on the rockface at our side. Hopefully Kieran got the full insurance, because that was going to leave a mark. “They just want to help where they can. Kieran would never ask for something like this. He wouldn’t admit he needs the help. But that won’t stop us from trying.”

  “His ability to inspire loyalty is unequalled,” Red said as I met her and Bria at the back of the SUV. The tailgate was down and Red was strapping weapons onto her person as Bria dragged dead bodies out of the back. So this was what Red had “needed” to do instead of joining us for lunch: she’d been on cadaver collection duty.

  I hoped I never got used to that.

  “The level-five fire elemental in Sydney has to be a close second,” Bria said. “What’s Dara’s story, anyway?” She pulled out her backpack and took incense from the side pocket, preparing to call spirits to shove into the cadavers. “She helped take down Valens, so you’d think she’d be in Kieran’s camp, and yet she’s keeping her distance.”

  “I can do it,” I said in annoyance. “I’m faster. Who are you calling?”

  Bria replaced the incense, pulled out a locket, and handed it to me without missing a beat.

  “Valens was a thorn in Dara’s side,” Red said. “It behooved her to usher him out of his office. But she doesn’t know what direction Kieran is going to take politically. Until she does, it’s smart to keep her distance.”

  “True,” Bria said, motioning me on. “That’s Chad’s locket. Remember him? The powerhouse with the eighties name?”

  Of course I remembered. He was back at the house in magical San Francisco, watching over things and leading the spirit sentinels in shifts with John, a spirit that had been with us since we’d freed him from Valens.

  I handed back the locket. “You could’ve just said. All I have to do is think of them when they’re on this side of the Line and they sail toward me, remember?”

  Five minutes later, four spirits were strapped into fairly fresh bodies and learning the ropes—John, Chad, and a couple of others from their squad. Jack stood a few paces away, pouting because he couldn’t understand why he didn’t get to participate. Given he’d never been in a cadaver, I didn’t want this to be the first time. It would be distracting as he tried to learn how it worked, something he didn’t much like hearing.

  “These falling rocks weren’t an accident,” Red said, looking at the steep road ahead. Beyond the huge boulder, small and medium-sized rocks littered the way, clustered together or solitary, all too large and plentiful for a car or SUV to navigate around. “Our guy is trying to head off visitors.”

  “That’s nice, at least. It’s like posting a warning.” I chanced a look over the edge, immediately dizzied by the drop. “He can’t be all bad if he’s at least warning people away.”

  “Both his parents were giants, right?” Bria said, making it around the boulder and hiking her backpack a little higher on her shoulders.

  “Yes,” Red answered. “He was born of two immortal Demigods of Athos, but he didn’t get the Demigod magic. Both of his parents are dead, but I couldn’t figure out how they died. It was before modern-day recordkeeping.”

  I knew that mortal Demigods still lasted five hundred years or more, but I hadn’t heard of a non-Demigod living that long. I said as much.

  “It usually only happens to those with two Demigod parents, though it’s not common,” Red said, glancing back to make sure the animated cadavers—which I called zombies, given how they lurched and jolted when they moved—made it around the large barrier rock. “Sometimes the kid of two Demigods gets the long life without getting the power. Magical genetics can be unpredictable.”

  “Why didn’t those nut sacks wait in the car?” Bria mumbled as we went around the bend, finding more rocks littering the road. “Where are they, Lexi?”

  “Hundred feet as the crow flies, give or take. Probably a few turns to go.”

  A shape manifested next to me, and I jumped back with a start. Bria grabbed my arm, probably worried I’d trip and pull a Superman over the edge of the road.

  Harding, the Spirit Walker of old, grinned at me. His tousled blond hair, dark brows, and the slight bags under his eyes made him look like a wild child, worn out from too much fun. His sparkling blue eyes said he knew I was in danger and wanted a front-row seat.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him, crossing to the mountain side of the road. I didn’t trust my clumsiness.

  “What?” Bria asked as Red looked back in confusion.

  “Harding,” I answered.

  “What’s he doing here?” Bria asked, her eyebrows pinched. “Did you bring the pocket watch?”

  Harding was tied to the pocket watch he’d had when he was living, which was buried in a safe in deep waters beneath a particularly turbulent part of the ocean. Kieran was the only person who knew exactly where it was hidden.

  “No, I didn’t,” I said, waiting for Harding to explain his sudden appearance.

  He shrugged, his grin growing. “You complete me.”

  I gave him a flat stare. “But seriously, how’d you find me? Or…why, I guess. Without your pocket watch, I’m not your home base.”

  He shrugged again. “You weren’t my home base. Maybe you are now. You’ve grown on me. I like watching you…go about your day.”

  Shivers racked my body at the change in his tone. At the unwelcome sexy glimmer in his eyes. That pause spoke of twisted sheets and writhing bodies, and the words he’d uttered did nothing to conceal his true meaning.

  I could feel my expression closing down into a scowl. He knew his flirtation annoyed me—I was pretty sure that was why he did it. “Look, we’re about to enter a hairy situation here. I don’t need any distractions. If you’re here to help, great. If not, shove off.”

  “What are ya up to?” he asked, looking up at the mountain. “Looking for giants?”

  “A particular giant, yes. A level five with a bad attitude, I guess.”

  “A very bad attitude,” Red murmured.

  “And I see you brought my favorite Necromancer. We’re going to have beautiful babies, her and I. Tell her I said so.”

&nbs
p; “You’re dreaming of days gone by,” I said dryly.

  “Tell her.”

  I did as he said without really thinking about it, looking hard at a half crater punched into the side of the road. An enormous boulder had clearly fallen, too big to stay on this small shelf of a road. It had smashed its way through and kept going.

  “No fucking way,” Bria muttered. “A Demigod is plenty bad enough.”

  “She’s fooling herself,” Harding said with that handsome, devilish smirk.

  “I don’t think she’s the fool, and also, this is getting gross. Knock it off.” I edged around another boulder, three feet across and two feet high. “Where are these coming from?”

  “The top, I’d imagine,” Red said.

  Even the spirits in the bodies tipped back their heads to look up the mountain.

  “But there is no evidence of these things rolling down this slope,” I pushed.

  “They probably weren’t rolled. He’s a giant—he can make it rain rocks, if he wants to,” Bria said. “A Demigod could shake this whole mountain. This guy can probably only shake a portion of it. What do you bet that’s the portion he lives on?”

  “Well, this just got interesting,” Harding said, and slipped his hands into his pockets. “You and your friends do entertain, I’ll say that much.”

  A rust-red splotch on one of the rocks caught my eye, and I wondered if it was dried blood. If so, was it from a human or an animal? Either way, the source had probably been eaten.

  I swallowed down a lump in my throat. My stomach turned a little faster.

  “There they are.” Red pointed as we went around another bend. The road leveled off for a brief period with a small grouping of trees stuck in a little ravine at the side. Donovan leaned against a large boulder, not unlike the one that had blocked the SUVs. Thane stood with his hands on his hips, looking up through the trees.

  “Hey, guys,” Bria said as we drew near, both of them turning to face us. “Why did you walk this far in?”

  Thane nodded at me in hello before glancing back at the cadavers following us. “We wanted to see if he’d throw any rocks or whatever it is he does.” It didn’t sound like he was worried about the possibility. “It’s been quiet.”

  “Too quiet,” Donovan said, his subdued voice raising the small hairs along my arms and neck.

  “What do you think about the size of these boulders?” Red asked, sweeping her gaze across the road.

  Donovan shrugged. “Individually, not a problem.” He was a level-five Telekinetic and would hopefully keep us from getting smooshed. “If he creates an avalanche, it’ll get hairy.”

  “What about you?” Red turned to Thane.

  “I can bust through a decent-sized avalanche, I think. I can catch and relaunch rocks. But once I go Berserk, you’ll have to run.”

  As a level-five Berserker, Thane was incredibly strong and powerful. He was also incredibly unpredictable and dangerous. After the change, he stopped distinguishing friend from foe. He saw red and attacked.

  An attack on his spirit box, if continued for long enough, would force him to shift back into his human form, but that wouldn’t help if rocks were being thrown at us.

  “Right. So we’re essentially trapped up here with very few options should this giant want to kill us,” I summed up, feeling the urgency for action. I was very close to losing my nerve.

  “We got this,” Donovan said, moving around to massage my shoulders. “It’s universally believed that this giant likes to play games with his prey. He’ll want to meet us. Feel us out. Then he’ll try to kill us in a clever way. He’s probably bored—he’ll want a little sport. All we need to do is get an audience with him. That’s it. I can lob rocks away to get us there.”

  “What if I can’t talk him into joining us?” I said, shrugging him off.

  “Then you kill him before he kills us.” Donovan motioned me forward. “Let’s get to it. Kieran thinks we’re escorting you to the outlets. As soon as he has a second to think about the direction we’ve gone, he’ll know something is off. Time is ticking.”

  “It’s not going to take him long. He’s not a stupid man,” Red said.

  “He’s got that useless magical mayor in his hair all day long,” Donovan replied. “We’ve got Daisy monitoring the situation, ready to step in and run interference if need be. We’re good for a while.”

  “Like I said back at the Airbnb, Mordecai is going to give us away,” I said.

  “Daisy figured out a way around that. She locked Mordecai in the basement. That little gremlin doesn’t play.” Thane laughed as we got underway, not taking the road, as I had thought we might, but heading through the trees and onto a small path that wound along a natural spring cutting through the mountainside.

  “Oh, and Lexi, we’ll absolutely be blaming all of this on you, just so you know,” Donovan said. A huge boulder loomed in our path, and although Thane easily launched onto it, Donovan stood to the side and gave me his hand. I allowed him to help me up, following Thane along the path. “He won’t kill you.”

  “Oh yeah, I meant to mention that bit.” Bria took the help as well, then curtsied once she’d made it onto the rock. Red gave Donovan a confused look and hopped up after us as though on springs.

  “What am I supposed to do, float up?” Jack said, looking perplexed.

  I yanked him up behind us, dragging his spirit like an old tire on a rope.

  “That doesn’t feel nice,” he bleated.

  Harding didn’t need the boost. He just floated up with a smug look on his face.

  Despite everyone’s fitness level and all-around athletic ability, we were all breathing hard in another fifteen minutes. The zombies had fallen back, unable to keep the pace but still coming along slowly. The frigid air, getting colder the higher we climbed, didn’t stop sweat from trickling down my temples and wetting my back and chest. My runners, great for actually running, weren’t as great for the rocky terrain, and I nearly rolled my ankles several times.

  The trees thinned, as did the grasses, until we were cutting along a tiny path on the side of the mountain, winding upward. Coarse rock scraped along my left side, and the ground dropped away on my right, revealing the steepest incline I’d seen yet. A puffy white cloud almost looked eye level as it slowly glided by.

  A soul bleeped onto my radar, higher still, and pushed back a ways, indicating we needed to cut back into the center of the mountain at some point. It sat idle, a gorgeous, sparkling thing that reminded me of a sunburst on a cloudy day.

  “There is goodness in him,” I murmured, trying to ignore Harding as he floated up next to me. And kept floating, hanging out over nothingness as the mountain fell away beside the tiny path.

  “Is that right?” Harding said, making me miss whatever Bria had muttered behind me. “And you feel that in a soul, do you?”

  “Are you mocking me?”

  “Not at all.” Harding once again drowned Bria out. “I’m just trying to get more information.”

  “It sounds like you’re mocking me, but yes, I can get that from a soul. A person’s soul doesn’t lie. When their soul is bright and shining and beautiful, there is goodness in them. But if it’s somewhat dull or tarnished, or feels like it needs a good polish, the person is probably a weasel. At least, that’s been my takeaway so far.”

  “Interesting.” Harding pursed his lips. “But even good people can do bad things. For example, a good person might think it’s fair to just kill a bunch of trespassers who have ignored the many warnings. He might even decide to eat them.”

  “Good and bad are sometimes opposite sides of the same coin, yes. To save yourself or your family, sometimes you have to rip someone’s soul out of their body, stuff it back in, and control them before they have a chance to realize they’re dead, which I have done. War and battle get messy, and so does life after loss. It’s the people that cause this crap that need to get their intestines dragged through their buttholes. Like Demigod Aaron, that lowlife dipshit.
I bet his soul is turd brown, but I wouldn’t know, would I, since he is a coward and hides in spirit whenever he comes around.”

  “Yikes. That’s an…image,” Harding said with a little grin. “I’m not offended, by the way, in case you were wondering—that lowlife dipshit being my biological father.”

  “That just proves my point, the cheating jerk.”

  Thane slowed then stopped, looking at the rockface. He took a couple of steps forward before turning to face me, his eyes tight.

  It was then I noticed the tall opening in the rock, like two doors stacked on top of each other. Each side of the opening was a clean slice through the solid rock, the edges polished-looking and nearly sharp enough to cut, similar to onyx but dull gray in color. Darkness pooled in the opening, but when I stepped past Thane to get a better look, I saw that the gap acted as a tunnel to the horror show beyond. Adrenaline pooled in my gut, and if we hadn’t been standing precariously on the side of a mountain, I would’ve turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction.

  “Been nice knowing ya,” Harding said behind me.

  3

  Alexis

  “What is it?” Donovan called up as Bria pushed into the opening beside me, careful not to bump me lest I go careening off the side.

  The short tunnel led to a light-filled, somewhat narrow crevasse in the mountain. The sides were perfectly parallel up until about head height, at which point they gradually flared outward for fifty or so feet. That was where the first shelf was built into the crevasse, a line of large rocks sitting on top like predators waiting to pounce. The walls kept flaring, leading up to another shelf about fifty feet above that, and another beyond it, the last one holding massive boulders that didn’t seem like they would fit into the bottom area. On their way down they would, however, scatter all the smaller rocks beneath them, killing whoever was stupid enough to wait at the bottom.

  All the small hairs stood up along my body. I could barely speak, looking at the walkway below certain death. The giant was not trying to hide the obvious danger. In fact, he was putting it clearly on display. Once those rocks came barreling down, they’d hit the ground, bounce around together, and then gush out the tunnel and over the side of the mountain, taking any trespassers with them.