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

  “Good…heavens,” Bria whispered, looking in from behind me. “This is…well thought out. Our giant is a smart man.”

  The area beyond the hell walk was masked in shadow, but I could feel the giant’s soul blazing amidst the darkness.

  “Can giants feel through the rock?” I asked, trailing my fingers along the cool, smooth stone to either side.

  “Level fives can,” Thane replied. “Lexi, that canal in there is a death sentence for you if I change. You’d be trapped in there with me.”

  “A canal is an artificial waterway to allow for boats, ships, or irrigation, but we get what you mean,” Jack muttered beyond Bria.

  “So that giant doesn’t need to actually have eyes on us to know where we are,” I said to myself. “Can Donovan handle all those rocks without you?” I asked Thane. I stepped aside, moving Bria with me so Thane could get a better look.

  “Let me up to see,” Donovan called.

  “You try to step around me, chances are you’ll go on a wild ride,” Red said to Donovan. “This path is precarious at best.”

  Thane ducked so he could look higher, but after the third shelf of rock, there was nothing but brilliant blue sky. It looked like the giant had lopped off the top crust of mountain. “No, not all that,” he answered. “He can probably handle the first shelf, and after that, it’s smoosh-ville.”

  I took a steadying breath, goosebumps now coating my skin, looking beyond him at the path that wound around the edge of the mountain, then back to the path cutting through the stone, a very clear display of the giant’s awesome power. Either way was precarious, and I wasn’t a fool to think one was rigged and the other wasn’t. Hell, if he could cleave a slice down the middle of this beast, he could surely shake things a bit and knock anyone on the sides off. Bria had already indicated as much. If we didn’t want him on our side and in a good mood, I could just grab his spirit box now.

  “Okay, so we play by his rules.” I stepped farther into the tunnel. “We’re on his land, after all. That seems fair.”

  Thane’s large hand covered my shoulder. “Or we go home and tell Kieran this is suicide. Bria and Red put together a list of people to recruit. If we don’t get this one, we can get another.”

  “Bria, be honest,” I said, “do you suspect anyone on your list is going to be easier to get to than this guy?”

  “I have absolutely no idea,” she said.

  “Educated guess,” I pushed.

  She blew out a breath. “There is a reason the people we’ve discussed haven’t been snatched up. Danger is definitely one of those reasons, but I’m not sure any of the others would be this…calculated. I pictured some pretty intense scenarios, even for a giant, but I have to be honest, this guy has cemented himself as the king of this mountain, without question. Maybe Thane is right. The giant has the upper hand and he knows it. Everyone seems to agree that he’ll use it. This doesn’t look good for us. It’s a risk that we probably shouldn’t take without Kieran’s say-so.”

  “Fat lot of good logic does you now,” Jack said, obviously pissed. “The guy likes to play with his food, and you’ve already climbed up onto his plate. He’s not just going to let you wander away now—you’re on his bloody doorstep.”

  “Yeah.” I chewed my lip, stepped into the mouth of Death Alley, and squatted down, thinking. On the other side, the giant’s soul glowed and sparked, vibrant and alive. He hadn’t killed us yet, so that probably meant my crew had gotten one thing right. He liked to meet his prey. Maybe he even wanted a little sport—a momentary distraction from what had to be a boring existence.

  I turned, looking at the view stretching out beyond Bria. It sure was beautiful up here. Breathtaking, really. The crystalline sky dusted a sparkling river far below. Green stretched out in a natural haven, lush and gorgeous. In the winter it would be blanketed in white, I knew. Cold and crisp. Silent as the grave.

  But there had to be more to him than sitting up here, all alone, watching the world turn. Like Kieran, this giant had gotten revenge for past wrongs, but unlike Kieran, he didn’t have the loyalty and support of the Six. He didn’t have anyone to lean on. He’d been cut off, set adrift, with nothing but pain and sorrow to keep him company. Revenge was a shallow victory, I knew. I still felt it through Kieran.

  This giant was hurting, he had to be. He was hurting, and he was misunderstood. My mother had taught me to help people who were suffering. Usually that translated into helping spirits, but now (hopefully) it would mean I helped a giant at the top of the world.

  Otherwise, I was about to get a rock facial.

  “Whelp. Let’s see if he’s ready for a chat. Bring up Chad and John, please,” I said to Thane, straightening up.

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Thane reached in and grabbed my arm.

  Normally I would punch him in the spirit box to make him let go, but he was still close to the entrance. I didn’t want him to startle backward and pitch off the mountain.

  “Best let go, Thane,” I said softly, my tone holding a warning.

  “Thane is just reacting to a situation none of us expected,” Bria said. “None of the survivors got close enough for a look inside, and I haven’t heard of any other non-Demigod giant with a setup like this. It’s…startling.”

  Annoyance flared through me. “Bring up the zombies. You wanted me here, and I’m here. I might as well try to help somehow. There’s clearly no chance of us just wandering back, although it might’ve been wise to mention the bit about none of the survivors making it this far before we made the trek, huh? A little less faith in me would be wise going forward.”

  Bria shrugged and signaled for Thane to pass the message along.

  Shoes scraped against rock behind her. A strange sort of shuffle reverberated through the short tunnel. A scream tore through the air.

  “Oops. There goes one of the cadavers,” Donovan called up. “Wasn’t one of the ones you wanted, though—”

  Bria spun around. “Catch it with your magic! That’s a good body.”

  “Oh.” Donovan paused. “Should I have? Too late now. Its head popped off on the landing. I’ll catch the next one.”

  “Don’t worry about the cadavers,” Thane said, peering in at me with a frustrated expression. “Donovan, save your energy for those rocks. Lexi is going to need backup.”

  Harding appeared by my side, standing in the open below the shelves of rocks lining both sides.

  “Must be nice not to be corporeal at this moment,” I muttered as John and then Chad jerked and shuffled in, moving past Thane and Bria. Donovan had probably ignored Thane and lifted them around the others on the treacherous path.

  “Let me take a look at the setup.” Chad shoved in around John, my being able to hear his spirit through the cadaver even though the body had no vocal cords. The space was a little larger in the short tunnel than it had been along that ledge.

  I flattened against the wall to let Chad pass. An advisor to Valens in life, he was extremely adept at strategy and warfare. He stared up at the rock shelves, analyzing the setup.

  “Get the Necromancer to use a rat on that mountain pass to see what lies ahead,” Chad said. “Let’s not engage here unless we have to. This is a death trap.”

  “Death Alley, actually,” I mumbled before passing that along.

  “Good idea,” Bria said, shaking her head. She unslung her backpack to grab the rats. “I’m off my game.”

  “Do you know where he is?” John asked.

  I watched Harding float up along the right side, looking at the first shelf of rocks. I pointed at the dark end of the alley.

  “They’re all just sitting here,” Harding said, bending down to look at a rock’s base. “Nothing is holding them here.”

  “Gravity is holding them there,” I said, and my voice ricocheted around the walls before spilling out of the open top and fading.

  “Let me out of here, and I’ll go check it out,” John said, wiggling in his body.

  I nodded, bent back the
casings I’d fastened on his soul to keep him in the body, and ripped him out. He tumbled across the ground.

  “Sorry,” I said before staring at that pool of darkness, wondering if the giant was lurking within, watching my every move. To him, it would look like I was talking to myself. Or the teetering corpses.

  “What a strange life I lead,” I mused as John made his way across Death Alley, the perfect spy because he couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone but me.

  “It could be stranger,” Bria said. “You could be a giant who sections himself off from society at the top of a mountain and eats his visitors.”

  “Bria!” Thane hissed, his voice echoing around the walls. “He might be able to hear you.”

  “He can definitely hear you,” John called from the darkness. “He’s got a cave back here, and he’s sitting in a Barcalounger watching and listening to all of you. You don’t have any secrets from this guy. Nice little setup, though. Homey. If you like that sorta thing. You’re sitting on his front stoop.”

  The situation solidified in my mind. I cut off the murmuring behind me with a violent hand gesture and edged forward as Harding touched back down onto the ground. His smile had left his face and he stood in my way.

  “Think this through, Alexis,” he said softly, his tone sending shivers of warning through me. “I cannot help you here. The man in that cave has been here a long time. He has killed many. You mean nothing to him, and while you can surely kill him, he’ll easily take you and all your friends with him. You’re the best of us. Don’t let today be the day you return to spirit.”

  “The only reason he kills people is because they want something from him, and he clearly wants to be left alone,” I said, stepping into the open. Two rocks wiggled on their perches, a pretty clear warning.

  My heart sped up and I put up my hands, danger pressing on me and making it hard to breathe.

  “I know you can see and hear me,” I said, then motioned for Chad to get out of the way. We’d put him in a huge body, and he was blocking my view. “Sit down or something, Chad.”

  “What do you think your death puppets can do for you?” The booming voice bounced off the walls, surrounding me, beating against me, before flying out of Death Alley. “They cannot protect you here.”

  “Big pile of bones over here,” John hollered, sounding like he was deep within the recesses of the mountain. His voice barely echoed out.

  Swallowing became a little harder.

  “They aren’t my death puppets,” I said with an elevated voice so he’d be sure to catch all my words. Fear swirled in my gut at the thought of the large rocks arranged above me, but I took another step forward. “Seriously, Chad, sit or something. I can’t see past you.”

  A rock the size of my upper body rolled off the first ledge on the right and picked up speed faster than was natural, thundering down the side. I didn’t get a chance to say, “Look out!” before it slammed into Chad’s upper body, smashing it against the rock wall. Bones splintered and his jaw crunched. A rib popped out of his dead flesh. The rock hit the ground and thudded against the other side before rolling a little farther and settling.

  Bile rose in my throat. Chad stayed standing, clearly fucking amazing at working his spirit within a dead body.

  “You are strong for a Necromancer,” the voice boomed. “You have great control.”

  I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, needing a second before I looked in Chad’s direction. “I’m not a Necromancer and I have no control over Chad—he’s the one in that body. He withstood that all on his own.” I braced a hand on my stomach. “That is not a good look, Chad. It really isn’t. You can take that body off if you want.”

  “Or I could run in there and gut that giant,” Chad responded, his anger seething.

  “He’d bring this whole place down on top of us, Chad. Think it through.”

  The ground shivered below my feet. The rocks shook in their perches. My heart choked me.

  I threw up my hands again. “I just want to talk to you, sir. That’s it. I mean you no harm.”

  His laugh had no humor in it. “Yet you talk about killing me. You speak of using me.”

  “I don’t think we said anything about using him,” Jack said, having drifted in at some stage.

  I put up a finger. “If you try to kill us, I will take you down with us, yes. That’s just the truth. But there’s no reason for it to come to that.”

  “And how would you do that? With your dolls?” Another rock plummeted from its perch, barreling down at Chad.

  Above me, movement caught my eye. A rock the size of my head barreled down, faster than thought, propelled by some unseen hand. I dodged out of the way, adrenaline coursing through me. The rock crashed into the side. Amazingly, it hadn’t put a single dent in the stone walls.

  “That was incredibly rude. We are your guests!” I grabbed the giant’s spirit box in an unyielding grip before squeezing with everything I had. It wouldn’t kill him or jeopardize his soul, but it would hurt like hell and probably scare the daylights out of him. No one was prepared for magic like mine.

  Rocks shook on their shelves. The ground heaved under our feet.

  “Get in, get in, get in!” Thane yelled to those still out on the ledge. The mouth of Death Alley had become the only safe place to be.

  Red and the guys squeezed into the tunnel. Boulders rained down on the outside of the mountain, slamming off the small path before careening away. Another rock loosed above Death Alley. It sped down, aiming for my face.

  I jumped over the rock that had previously fallen and dove into the bodies pressed into the tunnel. A monstrous thud echoed behind me.

  “I will bring them all down,” the giant thundered.

  The mountain heaved. More boulders tumbled down outside. The rocks on the shelves shook, three breaking free and tearing down to Death Alley. One bounced off the lower wall and shot toward us, only stopped by Donovan’s fast thinking. A crack grew along the top of the tunnel, slight at first but enlarging quickly. We had no escape, and he was working on bringing down our safe haven.

  I did the only thing I could think to do. I stood up and spoke the truth.

  “I will rip your soul out of your body, shove it back in, and make you dance to my tune. Try me, asshole!”

  4

  Alexis

  A hush fell across Death Alley. A small dribble of dirt dusted us from the crack above. Chad, in spirit form, sat on top of the stone that had finally taken his body to the ground.

  “The giant looks ashen,” John called from across the way. “Guess that means you’re still alive. You’ve still got a hold on his soul.”

  “Le—let go.” The voice was no longer booming.

  “I think you freaked him out,” John said.

  “I’ll let go if you agree to give the rocks a rest for a while,” I said, my voice tight.

  “They aren’t moving, are they?” the giant yelled.

  I released my grip on his soul casing. Everyone breathed heavily around me, still crammed in the small tunnel with no desire to leave.

  “You could’ve really hurt us.” I stood on shaky legs and stepped around the rock Donovan had kept from ramming into us. Adrenaline filled my body again, thankfully standing in for my wavering courage.

  “You’re trespassing,” the giant said.

  “This mountain is not owned by you. It is state property. You’re trespassing.”

  “Please do not pick a fight with the incredibly powerful giant on his home turf,” Jack said. “I do not want you all to join me in this fucked-up plane of existence.”

  “It’s not that bad after a decade or two,” Chad said. “Better than the beyond. At least here we have some purpose.”

  “You’re not helping, brother,” Jack replied.

  “Squatter’s rights,” the giant said, and there was no trace of humor in his words.

  I chuckled anyway. “You got me there. Fine, we trespassed, and you really could’ve hurt us but didn’t
. Are we square?”

  “What are you?” the giant asked.

  “He’s gripping his chair pretty hard,” John said. “Don’t let his tone fool you; he’s still freaked out.”

  “I’m a Spirit Walker. Your people call it a Soul Stealer. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about what I can do.”

  “My people?”

  “Yeah. Magical people. Our people, I guess. I don’t know. I didn’t grow up in the magical world.”

  “You are lying.”

  “Nope. I might look rich and polished now, but it wasn’t always the case.”

  “You don’t look rich or polished right now,” Bria mumbled. “Without Aubri on the trip to help style you, you keep making weird clothing choices and don’t know how to do your hair.”

  I had the feeling she was trying to be helpful.

  “You wear the Demigod’s mark,” the giant said.

  “Yeah. Kieran Drusus, Valens’s son, found me, and… Well, it’s a long story. I love him, and I willingly wear his mark.”

  “Valens…”

  The viciousness in his tone was unmistakable. The ground tremored under our feet. Everyone had known Valens by reputation. He had not been a nice man, to put it mildly.

  “Whoa, whoa.” I put up my hands. “I helped Demigod Kieran take Valens down. Kieran is in charge of magical San Francisco now, and he’s a fair and just leader. He wasn’t even going to take the job, but the people pushed it on him. His goal was to claim vengeance for his mother, that’s it. The rest has been like a snowball rolling downhill.”

  “What do you want?”

  I took a deep breath and leaned against the side of the wall. “I’m not going to lie to you: we came looking for help.” I gave him a quick recap of my situation and my parentage, finishing, “So unless I want to be kidnapped or worse, I need to help Kieran find some backup. We heard you were the best. I was hoping you would help.”