Chapter 15
I stood in front of the watery wall that separated Phanes’s realm from the land of the dead. Or, more specifically, the land of the punished dead. The netherworld didn’t only contain suffering souls. It also contained peaceful, happily-at-rest ones, too. How I wished we were going to that section instead of the solitary-confinement one.
Ian and Phanes were lying on the ground near my feet, two small, empty bottles next to them. I had a similar bottle in my hand, but it was full. I had to wait to drink until after I cracked the veil.
Then, I’d drain the bottle and kill myself. Temporarily.
I’d be more nervous about that if Ian hadn’t made the potion. Phanes had argued that he should do it because he had more experience crafting potions that would release our spectral, astral selves from our corporeal bodies, but Ian insisted. Phanes had been left to sulk, proving there was no age or species limitation to that behavior. Still, to his credit, he’d downed the potion without hesitation once Ian was done with it. Then, his whole body had convulsed before going very still.
Ian hefted his bottle in salute to me before draining it. Seeing him spasm before going completely limp brought back memories that made me lean against the wall for support.
Nothing prepared you to see someone you loved dead. Nothing, not even knowing that it was only temporary. Despite all logic, my knees felt like they’d turned to water, while my throat burned as if someone were holding a blowtorch to it.
Then, Ian’s transparent shade sat up, shook his head as if clearing it, and leapt out of his body.
“What’s taking him so long to wake up?” he asked, his foot going through Phanes’s body when he attempted to kick him.
“No idea.”
Ian turned at the new hoarseness in my voice. “We’re all right, luv. I’m not dead. I’m only . . . cosplaying, for a bit.”
I choked on a laugh. Leave it to Ian to call it that.
“Besides,” he said in a tone so confident, I wanted to absorb his certainty. “You’re rather like the princess of the netherworld. You want someone in it, you can split through worlds to throw their soul down to the pit. You want someone out, I have every confidence that you could do that, too.”
“Except I can’t,” I said.
Not even death made his smile less dazzling. “You’ve surprised yourself with your powers before. I’ve no doubt you’re going to do it again.”
Phanes’s shade groaned, and one filmy wing rose to cover his eyes. “What was in that poison?” he rasped. “My head is pounding. How is that even possible?”
“Eh, different physiology, different effects,” Ian said, unconcerned. “Now, quit whinging and get up.”
Phanes did, though his real body stayed in its prone position on the floor, of course. Then he shook his wings, smiling in apparent bemusement at how they were now see-through like the rest of him.
“Remember, crack the veil just enough for us to slip through, but not wide enough to attract anyone else’s notice.”
Right. As if I needed reminding that getting caught would be very, very bad for all of us.
I looked at the wall, and reached out, letting my fingers brush the water that fell in a continuous rush from the ceiling.
Power exploded up my arm. I gasped. I’d been electrocuted with less effect.
Let me do this, my other side thought with no small amount of judgment. Your emotions are too erratic for the precision required for this task.
Oh, fuck you, I thought before realizing that I was literally telling myself to get fucked.
Therapy. I needed so much of it.
First things first. I let my other half rise, feeling her cover me like an incoming tide covers sand. At once, my anxiety was replaced by cool objectiveness.
I reached out, touching the watery wall again. This time, the power made me shiver with its delicious ferocity. Such force hidden behind such delicateness. It wouldn’t take much to breach this section of the veil. In fact, only the barest effort . . .
A line appeared in the veil, as thin as a thread from a spider. Darkness leaked out, turning the waterfall inky black in an instant. Power rushed out as well, knocking Phanes over while making Ian brace to stay upright. I wanted to bathe in its obsidian flow, but an even more tantalizing power lay beyond it, and all I had to do to partake in that was to drink.
I drained the potion in the small bottle in a single gulp.
Pain ripped through me. I barely noticed. Power washed it away, making the spasms convulsing my suddenly heavy body more an inconvenience than anything else. When those convulsions stopped, I exited my body as easily as if I were discarding a garment. Then, I stared down at it.
Despite all the times I’d been murdered, I’d never seen my body before. Normally, it burst into flames when I died, mimicking my very first death, when Dagon’s lackeys had murdered me by throwing me into a blazing fire.
I’d been so very young back then. A toddler, the modern term for it. That death should have been the end of my story. Instead, it was the beginning. After I came back to life, Dagon’s lackeys took me to him, knowing he’d have a use for me. And oh, Dagon did. I spent the next two decades being ritually murdered to bolster Dagon’s claim that he was a god because he took credit for my continually rising from the dead.
Then, my father sent Tenoch to rescue me, and I realized Dagon hadn’t been the one resurrecting me. My father had. Now, he was the one who needed saving. I supposed even if my father hadn’t brought Ian back from the dead, I’d still owe him one.
Time to repay him.
“Come,” I said, sliding through the faint rent in the veil.
Once on the other side, my vision crystallized in a way it never had before. Darkness was everywhere, but it was also so clear. Like staring through crystalline, obsidian waters. Oddly, the other side, where Ian was, now looked grayish and fuzzy.
I pushed my hand through the slight rent in the veil, making sure that I could go back as easily as I’d come through. At once, Ian took my hand. Neither of us had fleshly bodies anymore, but somehow, I could still feel him. He laced his fingers with mine, his grip just as strong and real as ever.
“I’ve got you,” Ian said, voice sounding farther away even though we were mere centimeters apart. “If you want me to pull you back in, just say so.”
Phanes let out an exasperated noise. I ignored him. So did Ian. He continued to hold my hand, the veil shimmering and rippling between us.
I didn’t want him to pull me back in. Incredibly, after all my arguing about him staying behind, I wanted to pull him in here with me instead. This entire place vibrated with so much power. I wanted Ian to feel it the way I did.
“No,” I said. “I’m doing this.”
Ian’s mouth curled. “That’s my demigod.”
Then, he released my hand and turned around to face Phanes.
“After you, mate.”
Phanes gave Ian a sour look. “Don’t you trust me to go through after you?”
“No, I don’t,” Ian replied with a brilliant smile. “Besides that, I also wouldn’t leave you alone with our helpless, mostly-dead bodies even for a second. So, again I say, after you.”
Phanes muttered something I didn’t catch, but then moved in front of the faint seam in the veil. I moved back, allowing him room. He hesitated for a second, and then went through the seam.