“What has he done?” she asked.
“Do you have the Key?”
The thing was still clenched in her fingers. She raised her hand to show him. “How?”
“He’s enslaved himself to Andarta in exchange for the Key and her promise to stay in the Abyss.” The voice came from behind her, and she turned to see Christian standing there.
“We have to get him back.”
“It’s too late. He wears her sigil.”
She couldn’t bear the thought of Piers in slavery. He’d make a shit slave. Would Andarta hurt him if he defied her? Why had he done it?
Christian answered her unspoken question. “He did it because he knew she would win otherwise.”
“How do we get him back? How do we get him away from her?”
“We don’t.”
“We can kill her.”
“If she dies, those bearing her sigil will also perish.” He came to stand in front of her. His face held pity but also resolution. “This is what he wanted. His grand gesture. He did this for all of us. The best thing you can do is accept it and live your life.”
Yeah, like that was going to happen. “You’re his friend—you can’t leave him there.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad. He loved her once. Perhaps he still does.”
The memory of his words drifted through her mind. I love you. And she knew he didn’t love Andarta. He loved her.
Christian’s expression softened. “Do you think he would have done this if we could think of another way? For the past week, we’ve been searching for a means to defeat her and we’ve come up with nothing. The attacks that have been happening were only the beginning. Millions would have died, the rest been enslaved—”
“Instead it’s only Piers.”
“Yes.”
She had to get away. Think this through. There had to be a way. Someone who would help. She looked at Jonas, and he shrugged. His loyalty was to the Order.
Around her neck, she could feel the ring her father had given her. He hated Piers. He’d probably love this. But he claimed to care for her, and she also guessed that her father held the answer to unlocking her own powers. She remembered enough to know that it was with his help that she had shut them away when she had been little more than a baby. She wasn’t sure what he could do, but if she was going to outwit Andarta, she needed every bit of help she could get.
“What shall I do with this?” She held up the Key.
“We’ll hand it over to Asmodai, and he can destroy it as he should have all those years ago.”
“Well, perhaps someone should watch him this time. Here.” She gave the Key to Christian and walked away.
She needed to do something before she contacted her father next, and she headed to the elevator. The doors slid open, revealing Ryan and Maria.
They appeared very chummy, and was that guilt that flashed across Maria’s expressive features as she glanced up and noticed Roz? She shifted a little distance away from the detective.
“Not gone back to the mother house yet?” Roz asked.
“I may not go back. Tara has offered me a job here. She runs a refuge for people who have been damaged by contact with this world. She thinks I could help.” Maria shrugged a little helplessly. “I’ve seen so much now. I can’t go back and hide behind the convent’s walls. I must do what I can to help.”
“Good.” She glanced at Ryan. “And what about you? Have you decided?”
“Yeah. I’m staying as well. It’s that or let these fuckers mess with my head—not going to happen. I told Piers and Christian last night. I just have to work out my notice and then I’m moving in.”
“I’m glad. They need good people like you.”
“Forget the good. They just need people. This place is full of monsters.”
“Including me.”
“No, not you. I don’t know what you are, but you’re not a monster.”
She realized this could be the last time she saw her friends, and she couldn’t even say goodbye. Finally, she moved aside so they could pass and stepped into the elevator.
“Look, I have to go, but I’ll see you both later.”
“Will you?” Ryan asked.
Roz ignored the comment and jabbed her finger on the button to close the doors. She made her way up to the roof where they’d met with her father the last time. Sitting on the low wall that ran around the edge, her legs dangling, she decided how best to approach him. She required information as much as anything. Christian had told her there was no way to save Piers. But did she believe him?
The sun was high overhead. Down below she could see tiny figures scurrying along the streets, hear the blare of car horns. Once, she’d desired nothing more than the chance to live a normal life among these people. Now, she accepted that would never be and she wasn’t upset at the thought.
Always before, she’d been alone, hiding what she was. This last week had shown her what it could be like to be among friends. Loved ones. Piers. She couldn’t give up on him. She pulled the chain from around her neck and rubbed at the smooth metal. It felt cool under her fingertips.
“Come,” she whispered. “Father, come to me.”
For a minute, nothing happened, and a sense of despair hit her. She didn’t know what she expected from him, but he was her only hope. Everyone else here was on Piers’ side. They wouldn’t go against him.
A mist formed in front of her and her father materialized.
“Rosamund.” His expression was guarded, and she realized he must already be aware of what Piers had done.
“You knew?” she asked.
“He came last night and told me.”
“Seems he told everyone but me,” she said, not trying to keep the bitterness from her voice.
“He knew you would ask him to stay, and he had made his decision. You should be proud. I’ve always hated Lamont, but what he has done will save countless lives.”
“We have the Key now. There has to be a way to get him back.”
“The only way he can be freed is by mortal combat. And only then if she accepts the challenge and is killed. Asmodai could maybe kill her, or perhaps even Christian. But she’d be a fool to accept a challenge from them. And Andarta is no fool—except obviously in her feelings for Lamont.”
“If we just kill her…?” Christian had told her that Piers would die along with Andarta but she wasn’t sure she believed anything anyone told her anymore.
“Any who bear her sigil will also die.”
Damn. There went that idea.
“I won’t let this happen,” she said. “I won’t just walk away and get on with my life.”
“It’s what Lamont wanted. A chance for you to find yourself. Come with me to the Faelands. Let me show you our world, our people. You could be happy there.”
“Yeah, like you’ve been really happy, haven’t you? Tell me—have you had one peaceful day since my mother died?”
He looked away briefly. Then back to her. “No. But your mother is dead, and I blamed myself. Piers is alive, and this is not your fault.”
But she suspected that it was her fault. She suspected that Piers had done this for her, to give her the life she had never known. I love you. His words whispered through her mind. “Do you really think I can be happy knowing Piers is in servitude to that bitch?”
“They were lovers before.” He shrugged. “Perhaps he won’t find it so unpleasant.”
“He’s not the same man he was back then.”
“I can’t help. I cannot even enter the Abyss.”
“But I can.”
She’d been before, but always with Asmodai. Somehow the rules that kept the fae out hadn’t worked against her. Was that somehow tied to her hidden powers? Now, she needed to persuade the demon to take her again. And help her find Piers and Andarta. And afterwards?