Blace nodded at several vampires who’d suddenly appeared, joining the ranks. —Forbearers, and a red-eyed natural-born. I recognize him. Lothaire. Powerful. Basically the primordial here. The female with him is vampire as well.—
The clear-eyed vampires kept Lothaire in their lowering sights, muttering something about the “Gravewalker.”
Nïx’s Vertas alliance already had deep fractures within it.
Sian brandished his war ax when demons appeared, their horns sharp with hostility. The muscular males bared their fangs. —Rage demons stand against us? Do they not comprehend what they guard in Rothkalina? And for whom?—
Allixta’s palms grew hotter when females exited the manor with their own hands alight. —None of these witches have paid their taxes. None have permits. Yet they threaten hexes against their Overlady?— Curses hissed, prowling back and forth.
—So we’re to draw battle lines?— Blace slipped his sword free. —This early?—
Sian twirled his ax. —What will it take to actually encounter a challenge?—
—They’re not without their strengths,— Allixta said. —The witch with mirrors for eyes killed a Wiccae deity. I sense those divine magicks from here. She’ll never be able to afford them.—
—We don’t have time for this.— Rune switched one-and-done for a bonedeath arrow, aiming at the ground near Val Hall.
Nïx canted her head, revealing her feylike ear. “Where are my manners? Can I offer you something to eat or drink? We have many nonexistent hors d’oeuvres.”
“I want Josephine,” Rune told the Valkyrie. “I know you see her even now.”
“You know know? Ah, another psychic! Why should I tell you? She didn’t even thank me before leaving. Rude phanpire.”
“Thank you? For the punishment you meted out to her?”
The Valkyrie’s eyes blazed silver. “I taught her.”
“Don’t play games with me, Nïx.”
“Hmm? Something to drink or eat?”
“Tell me where Thaddeus took my mate.”
“To a place you will never find,” she said. “The District of the Gold, Purple, and Green Gardens.”
Snickers sounded behind her.
—This is amusing to them?— Allixta was spoiling for a kill. —How will those witchlings feel once I put a lien on their abilities? When all the spells they’ve ever cast boomerang back upon them? Their ‘House of Witches’ will crumble in a time of nightmares. The tax lady cometh.—
Nïx gestured back at Val Hall. “Tsk tsk, Rune, you and your mate didn’t leave this place as you found it.”
The mighty oaks were strewn about like driftwood, the wraiths still dazed above. Upended cars crowded the property.
“But,” Nïx said, “we remain.”
Allixta conjured a larger beam of magick. —Easily remedied.— Addressing everyone, she said, “Trifling beings, you are presently beneath my boot heel; you just don’t have the awareness to grasp your own doom. We are the bringers of it.”
Lothaire, the red-eyed vampire, laughed. “Well, I like them already.” At others’ glares, he added, “What? That sounds like something I would have said. With, of course, a dash more verve.” Then he asked Nïx, “Are we going to war or not? If we don’t, this exercise is tedious enough to count as repayment, soothsayer.”
Nïx absently told him, “Always with the payments, Enemy of Old.”
Rune asked the Valkyrie, “You know what my arrow will do?”
She nodded happily. “It will pulverize all our bones, and nothing will ever heal us.”
Lothaire said, “That sounds unpleasant. This is what we get for planning a fair fucking fight. We deserve nothing less.” To his female, he said, “Trace the hell away from here. Now.”
Rune drew his bowstring. “Tell me where Josephine is.”
The lightning bolts around Nïx flared and expanded. “I’ll never let that arrow hit the ground. I’ll deflect it with my lightning—or my very body.”
—Can she do this?— Blace asked.
Rune said, —Yes.—
“And if you kill me,” Nïx continued, “your poor mate won’t be a blood drinker anymore, will she?”
Blace stiffened beside Rune. —What is she speaking of?—
—Josephine made a vow to the Lore not to drink if I went about the mission to kill Nïx without her.—
Blace narrowed his eyes. —Then you can’t target this Valkyrie.—
Sian said, —I can.—
Allixta added, —As can I. The demon and I will wipe out this entire force.—
Blace pointed out, —Orion never commanded us to war here. Not yet.—
One of the wraiths had begun to stir. It drifted over and materialized a massive braid of hair, as if pulling it from the ether, then dropped it at Nïx’s feet. The braid was as long as Uthyr’s tail. Locks of all different colors had been plaited into it.
The Valkyries’ payments to the Scourge.
Nïx’s hands flew to her cheeks in mock surprise. “But whatever could this be?” She toed the braid. “Are we starting our bar tab over? We did, after all, pay for continuous protection, and wraiths are levitating on the job right above us.” She confided to Rune, “It is so hard to find good help these days.” To the Scourge, she called, “Such a shame for you, when we were only one toll away from enslavement.” She gave Rune a broad wink.
She might as well have booted him in the balls. —She set all this up. The wraiths were about to exact their payment. She couldn’t do anything to them, so she put me into play, a pawn.—
For the first time, he wondered if this Valkyrie warlord had a shot at victory. If she ever grew coherent . . .
She stroked the bat on her shoulder, brushing away dust. “Rune, you’re testing the limits of your mate’s vow just by being here without her. Only one way to reverse this damage.”
“How?” he grated.
“You vow to the Lore never to kill me. That would end your mission, nullifying her vow.”
—She played me utterly.— He’d already lessened his utility to the Møriør this night. Now he would reduce it further? Would Nïx go down the line, neutralizing the Møriør one at a time until none were free to take her out?
He yearned to kill her just to rid his allies of her. His fingers tightened on his bow. Was he about to fail Orion for the first time?
“Before it’s too late,” Nïx said. “To sweeten the pot, everyone leaves in peace tonight.”
Allixta’s eyes flashed. “You presume to dictate terms—to us?”
“Yes, least-favorite-Wiccan-person. Until you return with the monsters you keep in Perdishian. Until you return with our Undoing. But my warlocks are working on a shield.” Some of the Vertas immortals cast her questioning looks at that. Lothaire appeared amused. “I’ve heard it’s challenging to take over a world—when you can’t reach it.”
This was a threat Rune would normally investigate and contain. For now, all he could do was pop his arrow off the string and slide it into his quiver.
“Chin up, Rune,” Nïx said. “You don’t really want to kill me. If you do, I will rise in memory and wallow in power. All the factions of Gaia will unite under my banner.”
“Very well, soothsayer.”
Allixta snapped, —Don’t you dare, baneblood!—
“And no qualifiers, if you please,” Nïx said. “This is for your mate’s health and safety.”