Chapter 1 – Alexis
Bria wiped her mouth and leaned toward me over the small, round café table. “Quit stalling. Finish your wine and let’s go. If we leave now, we can get to that psycho rock wielder’s lair and back by dark.”
“What? No!” Jack pointed at Bria, though she didn’t notice because he was dead, a spirit, and unlike me, she couldn’t see or hear him. “No way. Nuh-uh. Kieran will go apeshit if you go without him.”
I swallowed the last of my tart wine and wiped my mouth with a napkin before leaving it on my finished lunch plate. Bria was right—we needed to get moving. We were in this small town in Montana for one purpose only: to meet the level-five, rock-wielding giant who plagued the nearby mountains. A giant who had killed a Demigod a handful of years ago and then sectioned himself off from society. A giant who wouldn’t be swayed by Kieran’s considerable charm.
Or so Bria kept telling me. She was convinced I was the one for the job, and Red, Kieran’s former assistant and my current bodyguard, agreed with her. In fact, they’d convinced me to participate in their plan to recruit him behind Kieran’s back.
“Even if Kieran was the best one to go, he won’t be able to get away,” I said to Jack, standing. “The leader of this place is on Kieran like stink on a pig. He’s only a level five of…” I squinted, trying to remember.
“It doesn’t even matter,” Bria said, standing with me. “His territory is tiny, he’s not a Demigod, he’s got no money, and he has to know Kieran’s only here to try his hand at that giant. The guy’s getting all the face time in while he can. He probably hopes Kieran will lift him out of the slums like a professional Cinderella. It’s great for us, because it takes Kieran out of the equation. Come on, walk and talk. Let’s go.”
I’d told Kieran the advice Harding had given me six months back—bulk up the collection of magical people around you. Fill your new, larger team with the best and brightest you can find, equipped with all different types of magic.
Since Kieran had to stand up to my biological father, Magnus, a powerful and well-connected Demigod who had a history of killing his children, he had taken the advice to heart. He needed the best, and he needed them soon, because the next Magical Summit, the government leadership conference for magical people, was drawing ever nearer. Which was why he’d been traveling around the country under the guise of meeting other leaders in order to woo select magical workers from their territories. Poaching magical workers was fair game, apparently, so long as they hadn’t taken a blood oath. It was like recruiting employees from a business: offer the person more perks than they had, and they might just take you up on it. Many of the people he’d pursued were diamonds in the rough—people who had attitude problems, lacked social skills, or just didn’t have the gloss and je ne sais quoi that Demigods typically sought out for their inner circle of employees.
In every single case so far, the strongly powered misfits had taken him up on his offer, in part because he was giving them something more—a place in his inner circle and a blood oath. In exchange for the increased strength, speed, and healing ability bestowed by the blood oath, the recipient would be magically compelled to protect him. They’d decided it was a fair trade.
The new members of the team had made the trek to San Francisco and were in the process of setting up a new life. I hadn’t interacted much with any of them. They didn’t hang around our house like Kieran’s Six, the original oath-holding crew, did. The Six were family; the new people were part of the job.
This situation wasn’t like the others. This guy had literally barricaded himself inside a mountain after claiming vengeance on the Demigod who’d killed his fiancée. Anyone who’d had a mind to punish him had died trying to reach him. Many trespassers had gone the same way. But because magical folk weren’t very good at taking a hint, more than a few Demigods had sent their people up that mountain to gain the giant’s favor. Fewer had come back down, and yet people still tried.
That was the magical world for you—brutal to a fault, and if you were powerful enough to get away with it, good for you. Well done.
Kieran was determined to recruit him before the Magical Summit.
“Kieran should be heading up to that nutter in the mountains, not you gals,” Jack said, still talking to Bria as though she could hear him. “You’re going to get yourselves killed.”
As we left the café, I repeated what Jack said to Bria, because it was a fair point.
“How many times do I have to say it? He has a soft spot for women,” Bria said, climbing into the passenger seat of the black SUV parked by the curb. Red was waiting in the driver’s seat.
“Did you get it?” Bria asked as she settled in.
Red nodded.
“Get what?” I shoved Jack back from the door before closing it. I didn’t need him crawling over me. It was gross. A moment later, he drifted in through the other side with a disgruntled expression.
“He doesn’t have a soft spot for women,” Jack said, reaching for the seatbelt to strap himself in. “The nutter has been known to rape and murder women.”
His hand passed through the belt, and his face fell. He faced forward with a hardened expression, and my heart broke a little more for him. I’d always had a soft spot for Jack, and it was hard watching him adjust to his new life. It was hard not to dwell on what I could have done differently if I’d known my magic better. It was a stark reminder of how much work I had left to do. I wouldn’t lose anyone else. Which made the current situation all the dicier.
“I’ve never heard of any raping,” Red said after I’d repeated Jack’s warning. “There have been a couple escapees, so something like that would’ve gotten out. He’s murdered plenty of people, though. Women, men, shifters in animal form—he eats them, too.”
She said this with a straight face, steering the car through town as calmly as if we were discussing the weather.
“He…” I scrunched up my nose. “Okay, let’s take a moment here. I wasn’t told that.”
“A good hunter eats what he kills,” Bria said. “Who cares? Dead is dead, no matter what happens after. Which won’t matter for us, because he won’t kill us. Lexi will rip his soul out before he can.”
“You guys told me he only killed some of the people that went up on the mountain,” I said, leaning forward to try to see their faces. The angle made it impossible.
“Some, all, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got you,” Bria replied.
“It matters. Honestly, even if he doesn’t kill us, which I’m suddenly not so sure about, because I’m not as awesome as you seem to think, do we really want someone like that around? He’s not interested in job offers, clearly. I doubt he’s going to be real keen on a blood oath.”
“Look, like I said before…” Bria turned in her seat so she could see me. “The reason he went nuts is because Demigod Sarges killed his fiancée. That’s understandable, right? You’d rip the soul out of the world if someone killed Kieran—don’t say you wouldn’t. Then, because he killed a Demigod, he had to go off-grid to a place he could defend with his magic. That’s all logic. The rest is just grief. It has to be. Grief makes us do strange things. But he’s had enough time to wade through his feelings, and he’s sequestered himself long enough that he has to be lonely by now. Or at least incredibly bored. He got his revenge, he’s had time to grieve, and now he’ll be ready for action, just you watch. Level-five magical people—sorry, normal level-five magical people—have trained their whole lives to use their magic. We aren’t built for solitude. He’ll be ready; all he needs is a pretty girl who’s a little nuts herself to sweet-talk him. Voilá, out he comes.”
I waited a moment, willing Red to say something. Because while I’d been given the broad strokes of this plan, suddenly it seemed hopelessly simple. Like…foolishly simple. Like…we were morons.
When Red didn’t offer any convincing arguments, I said as much.
“You are in a unique position,” Red said as we headed out of town. Beautiful, rolling hillsides filled in around us. “Your magic is feared the world over, but you’re a dunce regarding the magical world. It makes no sense. You’re this superpower who can create puppets out of living people, and you’re hopelessly clueless about almost all things. It’s endearing.” I frowned at her. “Then there is the fact that Magnus is your father, Demigod Aaron wants to rule you and will kidnap you to do it, and everyone is desperate to get their hands on you…” She glanced back at me. “See the connection?”
“No, I just see a whole lot of backhanded compliments…”
“He’ll identify with your story,” Bria said. “He’s basically in the same boat. Add in the fact that you went to see him behind Kieran’s back, and we have a winner.”
I rubbed my head as we wound our way into the mountains. “Was I drunk when I agreed to this?”
“Drunk on fear, yeah. Remember? You caught the spirit of Demigod Lydia lurking in your flower garden,” Bria said. “You would’ve agreed to just about any sort of bulked-up defense at that point.”
That night came rushing back to me. At that point we’d already been attacked by two of the Demigods of Hades, my father and Aaron, so I hadn’t been pleased to see the curvy shadow figure standing in my zinnias. I’d known from the exaggerated bust that it had to be Demigod Lydia, the only female Demigod of Hades’s line. She was checking me out, just as the others had, likely not expecting the extravagant team of spirit sentinels that loitered around my house twenty-four seven. They’d sounded the alarm, and Kieran and I had chased her away.
The very next day, Demigod Lydia had called Kieran’s office to apologize and ask for a meeting. A meeting Kieran had not agreed to yet, wanting Henry, one of his Six, to compile a list of all her allies to make sure it wasn’t a setup.
I knew Kieran was hopeful Lydia would become an ally against the other Hades Demigods, but shortly after Lydia showed up, a few of my spirit sentinels disappeared, Mia among them. Just vanished, without a trace. John said there had been a lot of talk lately of spirits heading to their final resting place, but I’d tried to pull one or two of them toward me, just to make sure (and to get a proper goodbye!), and they hadn’t shown up. Sure, they could’ve gone beyond my reach, but the timing was too close to be a coincidence. Lydia might be playing nice right now, but I worried something sinister waited underneath the cooperative exterior.
Either that, or another of the Hades Demigods was messing with my spirits without my knowing. It was entirely possible. Aaron and Magnus had both been unnaturally quiet. It didn’t bode well. I was terrified when they’d pop up next, and what they would do.
Bria was right, though. The incident with shadow Lydia had freaked me out. The Demigods of Hades could waltz through my neighborhood at any time. Even in their shadowy spirit form, they were more powerful than I was. So far, the Demigods had all “visited” in the dead of night, when Kieran was home. Someday they’d show up when he wasn’t.
Adding a giant to our arsenal, especially one with power known across the globe, would greatly help our chances. Or so I’d thought. Now I wondered if it would help escort me into the spirit realm.
“We probably should’ve told Kieran,” I said as we wound our way higher, the hillside becoming increasingly rocky. “What if this goes badly?”
“It won’t. Or not any worse than if Kieran had come. Hopefully it’ll be better, though. Much better. I don’t want to end up like Jack any more than you do.”
“Oh yeah, real nice,” Jack mumbled, looking out the window. “If I had a body, I’d turn this car around so fast…”
“Don’t worry, though,” Bria went on. I didn’t bother to tell her what Jack was muttering. “I left him a message. On paper. He’ll get it when he gets back to the Airbnb. By then, we’ll have recruited a new member of his entourage without having lied about anything.”
Jack stuck a hand out Bria’s way, looking incredulous. “Does her absolute conviction against the odds not set off warning bells? Lexi, come on—she’s always been crazy, but this time she’s just turned off reason altogether.”
I passed that one on.
“Demigod Kieran won’t admit it,” Red said as she slowed the car to a crawl. The SUV rocked badly, a tire going over a large rock on the road. The bottom scraped against another. “But if he wants to turn heads in a major way at the Magical Summit next spring, he’ll need some wow factor. He’s got you, and you wear his mark—that’s a good step in the right direction. The people he’s picked up recently are powerful. Another step. But he needs more key players, the kind of people no one else could get. And not by accident, this time, like he did with you. If he can get even a few of the talents on the list Henry, Bria, and I compiled, he’ll be in prime shape to show up at the Summit in six months with guns blazing.”
“They compiled a list?” Jack asked, leaning forward a little as though Bria held that list right now. “Why didn’t I know?”
I had the same question. This was news to me.
“Because Demigod Kieran hasn’t seen it yet. He doesn’t have a chance at recruiting the people on that list,” Red replied. “He does great with magical workers who care about earning a place of prominence in the magical world. Those people like being charmed, and beneath his flattery and manipulation, they can tell he’s a fair and just leader, as well as a good man. But it’s different with the people who have flipped the bird to the magical world. They will hear his candied words, and they’ll want to kill him for it. He’ll remind them of the people they were desperate to escape. Henry agrees, Lexi—Kieran is no good for guys like this giant. He needs help, and thankfully, he’s got an ace in the hole.”
“Who…me?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Bria answered. “Kieran needs your help, and you’re going to prove it to him by winning over the giant. You’re perfect for this role, Lexi. You’re the snake charmer of weirdos. You are not even remotely part of the normal magical society, even when you try. It’s pretty clear to anyone who meets you.”
“Neither are you,” Red told Bria.
“There’s a difference. I know the rules—I just don’t care to follow them. She blindly stumbles along, willy-nilly. She might get herself killed at the Magical Summit because of it, but when dealing with other nutters, she’s going to shine, just you watch.”
“I already said her quirks were endearing,” Red said dryly.
I shook my head and looked out the window, anxiety coiling tightly within me. I didn’t want to think about my ignorance or how things would go at the Magical Summit. I couldn’t, or acid would eat through my guts. I needed to focus on the here and now. On the moment. And in this moment, we were going after a dangerous giant who might kill and then eat us.
Was it too late for a redo of the past year?
Chapter 2 – Alexis
The higher we climbed, the more the landscape changed. The slope on the right side of the car shot up steeply, and on the left the land dropped away to limitless blue sky. The narrow road wound upward, and our speed continued to drop as we hugged the side of the mountain. The SUV pitched and rolled, shaking us as it lumbered over rocks or dipped into craters.
Finally, Red stopped the SUV in the middle of the small road. Looking forward, I widened my eyes.
Another black Cadillac SUV, just like ours, was parked in front of us, hugging the mountain as closely as it could. In front of it, the road was blocked by a large boulder sitting in a pool of earth of its own making, having clearly fallen or rolled from farther up the mountain. Red and Bria climbed from the SUV.
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.”
“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 eyelevel 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.
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