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

  “Please don’t enlighten me any more about my situation,” I said, rubbing my face.

  “This place is built on sand,” he said. “Sand for days. Very little natural rock. I won’t be much help if something happens.”

  27

  Alexis

  The afternoon just got weirder. After lunch we visited the mortuary, where Lydia stored magically sealed dead bodies. That in itself wasn’t odd, per se, since Bria hid bodies in the yard of every new house I moved into. The strange thing was that the bodies were stored upright in glass cases filled with dirt. Only the faces had been left visible. We walked down the rows, looking at dead faces, with their lidded eyes and sagging skin. It was more grotesque than I’d expected, which was saying something, given we’d just toured a collection of stuffed animals that would give a child nightmares, including created animals pieced together from various parts.

  Everywhere I went, eyes followed me. People smiled and bowed. They muttered reverence. Staff asked if I needed anything, offering ridiculous things, like to carry me in a chair if I needed a rest but didn’t want to stop. At lunch someone had actually cut my meat for me, like a child. It was a wonder they hadn’t attempted to feed me while they were at it.

  When I finally saw Kieran walking down the hall toward us, an hour before our scheduled dinner with Lydia and her choice people, I heaved a great sigh of relief.

  His jacket buttons were open and his hair disheveled, as though he’d repeatedly run his fingers through it. His smile was brief and eyes tight. Although I’d already gathered as much through the soul connection, his day had clearly turned out little better than mine.

  “Hey, love, how goes it?” he asked, his tone and mannerisms easy, loose and confident, but the wariness within him set me on edge. He waved his finger at the air around us. “What’s with this?”

  The Line throbbed not far away, pulsing with power that sizzled through my blood.

  “Oh, sorry. Hang on, I was just about to—”

  I turned and spied what had to be the twelfth white mouse that day, scurrying toward us with yet another spirit tucked inside. The woman that I ripped out looked around, her hair limp around her gaunt face and her faded eyes not seeming to register the scene around her. She seemed like she was on her deathbed…but she was already dead. Did she not realize she could change her image? And if so…why not? From my understanding, it was the kind of knowledge that was automatically imparted to the dead. If I weren’t so afraid of what Lydia might do to Jack if she found or felt him wandering around, I would’ve called him to me and asked.

  “I tried to talk to a few of the spirits lingering in the halls and a couple of the ones I’ve taken out of the mouse bodies,” I murmured. “It’s like they don’t even hear me. They look right through me. Except for one, who reached out for me, but I could tell he was just hoping to glean a little energy. I just don’t know what is directly causing it, or how to fix the situation.”

  “And the mice?” Kieran asked.

  I shoved the woman across the Line, as far as I could manage. Hopefully that would solve the problem. I was half inclined to go check, but we’d told Harding to stay away too, and I didn’t dare cross the Line while in the dominion of a Hades Demigod.

  “The Necromancer around here keeps sending white mice after us.” I took Kieran’s arm and walked with him back to our suite. Mordecai and Daisy followed behind, as quiet as the death lingering in this palace. The others walked with them, equally as silent. “Sometimes it is just the one and sometimes it’s a few of them all scurrying down the halls together. It’s weird. I get sending the first couple, trying to sneak up on us and hear what we’re saying, but after none of them succeeded, why keep it up?”

  “Bria?” Kieran asked as we reached the suite. He led the way inside, scanning with his eyes while I checked the place with spirit.

  “Clear,” I said. Kieran nodded, but kept the lead until he was in the middle of the room, his power oozing out around him. He worried about an attack, and he didn’t trust his eyes or my senses. Something had gotten to him.

  “It seems like a joke,” Bria said, following us in with everyone else. “There’s no other reason for it. The souls didn’t do any magic. I couldn’t even feel them, they were so weak.”

  “Lydia doesn’t have a sense of humor,” Zorn said, his voice deep and gruff. He scanned the windows and the corners.

  “Right. Exactly.” Bria sank onto a delicate chair, huffed, slid off, and melted onto the ground. She stretched out and propped her head up on her hand. “The way they’ve been treating Lexi doesn’t add up, either. Jerry and Red agree that it is probably intended as mocking behavior, but I just don’t see Lydia encouraging her people to treat someone lesser as someone of high status.”

  “Hades people are never what they seem,” Dylan said, taking a spot at the window. “Even if something is against their personality type, don’t rule out the possibility. They will bend a lot to get what they want. They are cunning and treacherous with their words, and they will take greater risks than others. Hades is the king of the dead—what do they have to lose, you know? They already rule the dead. At least, that’s how it has always been described to me. I don’t know much about Lydia, but Magnus is the master of trickery. He has no honor. All the Zeus Demigods are wary of him.” He shot me a glance and mumbled, “That I knew of, anyway.”

  “That’s a very Zeus way to see Hades, that’s for sure.” Bria huffed out a laugh.

  “Could the mice have been a distraction?” Thane asked as Henry clacked on his computer keys. He’d be making sure there was no surveillance in this room. There hadn’t been earlier that morning…but that had been hours ago. Apparently no one cared enough to halt the conversation.

  “In a different setting, sure,” Bria replied. “But we weren’t doing anything interesting. There was nothing to distract us from.”

  “There was plenty to distract us from, but a few mice wouldn’t do it.” Daisy rubbed her eyes.

  “If anything, the mice made it worse,” Mordecai said. Daisy nodded.

  “What about how they were treating Lexi? I’d like to hear more about that,” Kieran said, sitting on the couch.

  “We’re clear,” Henry said, leaning back in the chair pushed up to the little round table that held his laptop. He didn’t close it, though, clearly intending to keep monitoring.

  Bria explained how people had been greeting me and waiting on me, all while mostly ignoring Jerry, Red, and her. I felt the uncertainty within Kieran grow, and he rubbed his fingers along his chin, his dark five o’clock shadow giving him a rugged look.

  “What’s your take?” Bria asked him when she’d finished.

  Kieran shifted and propped an ankle over his knee. “The reason she invited us here was because we caught her loitering in spirit. At the time, she seemed appropriately abashed and receptive. I had high hopes of good communication. That’s not what I’m getting. I am getting a Demigod firmly entrenched in her territory and status, who speaks of politics delicately, who speaks of the future with the correct amount of vagueness, and who is carrying on how I would expect someone to carry on with a Demigod of my standing. She’s doing everything by the book.”

  Grim expressions covered faces, and as usual, I felt like a dunce.

  “Why is that bad?” I asked in a small voice.

  “She is a Demigod of Hades—she invited us here because she fucked up and got caught on Demigod Kieran’s territory without permission, and you are of particular interest to her and her kind,” Henry explained. “She hasn’t spoken to any of that. It’s the proverbial elephant in the room.”

  “She is actively avoiding speaking to any of that,” Kieran added. “I am here because of a few specific reasons, and she is acting as if we’re paying her a visit to acknowledge and admire her status. She is not generally thought to be inconsistent in her dealings, which means something fundamental has changed with regards to her invitation or her motives. I’m just not sure if the c
hange is cause for alarm or annoyance.”

  “It seems like there is a plan at work here, sir,” Thane said.

  Kieran nodded slowly, staring out at nothing. “I am inclined to agree, but again, is that plan cause for alarm, or annoyance? Mocking my girlfriend is not enough of a slight to incite retaliation. She could still be feeling out my connection to Lexi, trying to suss out if the mark is legit. Alexis has no blood oath—that mark is my only claim right now. That mark, and her word that it was applied willingly.” He paused for a moment. “Until I know more, I will remain cautiously optimistic. There is still a chance I can turn this meeting around to our benefit. I’ve thought of a few ideas I can plant. At the same time, there is not a chance we can pull out without it reflecting badly on us. We don’t have cause. Until we do, we have at least two more days before I can make an excuse.”

  “You might be green, but by Athos’s mountain cap, you have been trained incredibly well,” Jerry said.

  “Athos’s mountain cap?” A smile spread across Boman’s face.

  “That’s not in Canada, eh, Jerry?” Thane said, and Donovan started laughing. Jerry cracked a grin.

  “This isn’t just training,” Dylan said from his place in the corner. “He has an affinity for it. If he had adopted Valens’s ruthless style…”

  “I didn’t adopt my father’s…style, and if I ever try, Daisy has promised to burn my house down,” Kieran said.

  “With you in it,” Daisy said.

  “Right, yes, with me in it,” Kieran said. “How silly of me to forget that detail. But training and natural ability will only get you so far.” He rose and loosened his tie. “It won’t be enough to get us out of a trap. Only my crew can help with that. Look sharp in this place. Lydia has a firm handle on the rules of the magical world, and if things go poorly, I wouldn’t put it past her to use that knowledge against us. She mentioned the mark and said that many of the Demigods wonder if it was legally applied. Demigod Zander was one of those, apparently. His wife bears his mark, something he gave her on their wedding day, and because he had to defend it, he’s touchy about others who have it. I knew this, of course, and I expected he’d want me to speak on Lexi bearing my mark. That’s not a problem—he’s a sensible man, and Lexi’s testimony will do plenty to appease him. But for Lydia to bring it up in a meeting of the minds…”

  “Through torture, one of the Hades Demigods could break Alexis,” Zorn said. “At that point, they could easily make her claim you gave her that mark against her will. That would be enough to discredit it, and since she doesn’t have a blood oath, they’d say she’s not really yours. They could make the claim that she wanted a new home with those of her kind. That’s that issue filed away for them.”

  “Precisely. I’d then have political problems after I hunted them down and killed them all,” Kieran said as he shrugged out of his jacket. The confident, blasé tone he used when talking about violently avenging me sent a warm chill racing through me. I couldn’t say if it was fear or arousal. Maybe both.

  “Except everyone who knows Lexi can vouch for her,” Mordecai said.

  “Everyone who can vouch for her would be killed,” Donovan replied, his smile from earlier long gone.

  “I’d like to see them find me,” Daisy replied.

  “Nice sentiment, but you’re not magical, kid,” Bria said. “You don’t matter in their eyes.”

  “I matter, and they wouldn’t find me, either,” Zorn ground out, his eyes flashing. “Even if they took out Kieran, I would not forsake you, Alexis. I would still protect you and your wards. And I’d get to do it my way.”

  I gulped. Zorn was clearly not someone anyone wanted to piss off.

  “That’s all well and good, but by then…” Kieran turned away, and agony ate through the soul link.

  I pushed Zorn’s scariness and Kieran’s fear away. “Then why not give me the oath? You’ve already started it by giving me your blood. Just finish the procedure, or whatever it is. Then, even if they break me, I’m claimed. It’s official.”

  Kieran shook his head slowly. “If you take that oath, your impulse will be to protect me. I need you to protect yourself. I can’t let you take that oath.”

  Dylan shifted against the wall, his eyes rooted to Kieran, looking incredulous. No one else was surprised.

  I felt like stamping my foot on the ground in frustration. “Right, fine, awesome. I’ll have a bad future if they get a hold of me.” I braced my hands on my hips. “We’ve always known this. It’s not news. So instead of thinking or analyzing all of the horrible ways this can go wrong, let’s prepare for the possibility we may need to fight our way out of here. It’s not like we haven’t had practice.”

  “I’m good with that.” Donovan shrugged and grabbed an apple out of a golden bowl.

  “Question.” Daisy raised her hand. “How thorough do you think their inventory is of this place? For example, just hypothetically speaking, would they miss something like a golden ashtray inlaid with rubies just randomly left on a low shelf in the library behind a chair? They probably don’t even know it’s there, right?”

  The bubble of tension in the room popped. More than a couple of people took deep breaths. Smiles creased previously tight expressions. Chuckling, Kieran headed toward the bedroom and probably the shower.

  “Is she being serious?” Jerry, not one of those smiling, asked Dylan.

  A big smile lit Dylan’s face. “I think so, yeah.”

  “Of course I’m being serious,” Daisy replied. “That clown Demigod doesn’t need all this.”

  “That’s no way to speak about a Demigod,” Mordecai said. “Even in private.”

  “She made her bed, with all the colors she chose. I just noticed it,” Daisy retorted.

  “You shouldn’t steal,” Jerry told her.

  “I heard about that mountain lodge you made for yourself,” she replied. “Bones in the corner? Filth everywhere? Who are you to give me advice on how to survive?”

  “They won’t notice the little things, but you cannot get caught or give them a suspicion you took anything,” Zorn told her. “That would reflect badly on Demigod Kieran.”

  “Unless we have to drop the hammer on this bitch.” Donovan pushed away from the wall. “Then grab whatever you can carry. Rob that bitch blind. Bam!”

  “This outfit will take some getting used to,” Jerry murmured.

  “When it comes to surviving, there are no rules,” Dylan said, still smiling. “You might take a lesson from her. That kid seems to do it better than most.”

  “I learned from Lexi,” Daisy said. “If you want an example of someone good at surviving, look at her. You’ll see. If these idiots turn up the heat on her, they won’t know what hit them.”

  28

  Kieran

  Kieran held Lexi’s hand as they made their way to the main first-floor lounge to await dinner. The servants they passed acted exactly as Kieran would’ve expected, nodding to him before stepping to the side to give him more room. Lexi got a glance, which was correct, and the rest of his staff was ignored. Whatever had gone on earlier in the day was not happening now.

  Given Bria and Red were not prone to dramatics, and Bria was especially knowledgeable of the rules of hierarchy within the Demigod world, he wondered what Lydia was up to. Was she testing Lexi, ridiculing her, or were there darker forces at work? It troubled Kieran that he didn’t have a clue.

  Once they were in the lounge, a servant approached wearing a hideous, colorful jacket and one of those strange white wigs. Kieran had no idea what sort of fashion statement Lydia was trying to make with the getup. Surely her tastes were laughed at behind closed doors. If not, and if things went poorly here, Kieran would make sure to start the talk. That was an easy button to push.

  “Would you like a drink, sir?” the man asked.

  “Yes. A whiskey on the rocks, please.” Kieran angled a little to show he would like Alexis to order for herself. By deferring to her, he was making it clear that she
would eventually be his co-ruler, with an equal say in all decisions for the territory and a status similar to his, if not that of a Demigod. Making that point now would hopefully dispel some of the rumors surrounding the mark he’d placed.

  “And for you, miss?” the man asked.

  “Pinot Noir, if you have it,” Alexis said, looking away and lifting her chin haughtily. The soul link said she was annoyed and wary, reacting unconsciously to all the speculation surrounding them, but Kieran wondered if these people believed she was acting up because the special treatment from earlier had been toned down. If so, was that the reaction they’d hoped for?

  So many threads to this intricate web. So many nuances. Kieran didn’t have nearly enough information. At present, he would be blindsided if someone made a move. He and all his people would be vulnerable to an attack if one came.

  But would Lydia really go to such extremes? Even with the support of an intricate strategist like Magnus, it would be a dangerous gambit. If she were to kill Kieran, she’d be expected to pay the price. If not, the rules of the Magical Summit would be undermined at every turn. He doubted Lydia was foolish enough to try anything.

  “Surveillance in this room has been cut out entirely,” Henry said when the man had left, and Henry waved off a different servant that drew near. Only the head servant would wait on Kieran and now Alexis, his sole duty to make sure they were comfortable. Other, lesser servants would see to the rest of the group. “Amber is monitoring the other areas of the house. Nothing is amiss that she can see so far, but certain rooms aren’t accounted for. A block of guest rooms in the east wing are dark, and a second dining area and the rooms surrounding Lydia’s bedroom.”

  “Is that cause for alarm?” Kieran asked, looking down at Alexis.

  “It doesn’t appear so. There’s little activity in the halls around the guest rooms, and we wouldn’t expect Lydia to allow her people to monitor her in that way.”