Blackhearted Betrayal (15 page)

My eyes moved from him to all the Shadowhounds. I was pretty sure he and Elliana would make the right choice, but the others weren’t sleeping with allies-turned-
enemies
.

Magic roared into the pentagram at my back; magic flavored most heavily with the clichéd but appropriate solid black of Death, magic ringing with a thousand discordant notes of Raga song that originated with and poured itself into Sahana’s spell. That realization had the Anubians breaking past their reluctance to actually take up arms against a Nemesis. They hadn’t believed any of us would be physically capable of activating the summoning circle. The game had suddenly changed.

Guilt tugged hard on my heartstrings as I saw warring emotions play out among the Hounds in what felt like an eternity but was more like seconds. Horror, denial, acceptance, anguish, regret, and finally, determination. I braced myself to discover
what
shape that determination would take. My body sagged when the Shadowhounds turned on their brother Anubians and shoved them away from both the pentagram and now-glowing mirror. They were outnumbered by priests and acolytes, so my companions—minus Sahana and me—dove into the fray. The acolytes were barely nuisances—knowing too little Death magic to prove any true threat.
Charlie and several of the Shadowhounds soon had them cowering on the far side of the cavern, leaving the bulk of our forces to stave off the much more experienced, deadly priests.

Durra and Scott squared off against
His Excellency
. My breath caught again, and Rage burst unexpectedly, demanding that I leap forward to defend my mate—something I
would not do
. Sparks of black energy danced in the air, skittering from Sahana and the pentagram into the mirror, which pulsed with silver in addition to obsidian light. The portal was opening—despite the wards the Anubians had likely cast to block off Fury magic, never anticipating I’d bring a Death magic practitioner of my own. If I had jumped into the fight then, as instinct screamed for me to do, I would have left Sahana vulnerable.

I bit down on that Fury instinct to
fight
and maintained my position between Sahana and the portal. Every couple of moments I glanced behind to make sure no Anubian reinforcements had popped in from the tunnel, but most of my attention focused on the black-and-silver energy writhing around and
into
the otherwise innocuous mirror. Sahana’s Raga song reached a fever pitch, then
pop!
The link between mortal realm and Underworld snapped into place.

I checked on Sahana and knew from her haggard expression that she wouldn’t be able to maintain the portal for long. My gaze flicked to the fight still ongoing, and unease washed over me. No way would we be able to subdue
all
the priests in time for everyone to make it safely through, which meant some were going to
have
to be left behind. Stubbornness flared, and I considered
wading into the fray to end it quicker, but the overwhelming sense of
Mandate
drove that urge away.

“Quickly! Whoever can, into the portal NOW!”

Durra and Scott didn’t hesitate; she distracted Khenti-Manu, and Scott knocked him halfway across the cavern. Then my uneasy Megaera ally and my Warhound lover leaped into the portal in a few quick strides and vanished. Mac and Elliana—who had fallen into their usual pattern of fighting back-to-back—disabled their opponents long enough to follow suit. The remaining Shadowhounds redoubled their efforts to keep the Anubians off our backs, but I could tell it wouldn’t be enough—and so could Laurell and Patricia. They aborted their started run toward the portal and gave in more deeply to Rage’s burning insanity to help make up for decreased numbers.

I wouldn’t waste their sacrifice, either. “Charlie!” He responded to my call and swooped the still-chanting Sahana into his arms as if we’d planned it. They disappeared in a flood of silver-and-black lightning. I saluted Laurell and Patricia before jumping into the mirror—and a world of agonizing pain.

TRAVELING THROUGH A PORTAL WAS
NEVER
a pleasant experience—how could having your molecules magically zapped out of and back into existence ever be termed such a thing?—but none of my prior voyages could have prepared me for the maelstrom now tearing every fiber of my being apart before s—l—o—w—l—y smashing them back into place. I screamed—or tried to anyway—but my voice fell into formless darkness that had no end; until suddenly it did.

I stumbled out of a mirror several times larger than the one I’d leaped into, only to promptly fall to my knees retching onto the rough stone floor. By the sounds around me, I knew the others had been hit just as hard—except for Charlie, who moved to check on me, and Sahana, who waited for me to barrel out of the portal before she, too, fell to the ground. She was wiped out from
working such an insane amount of magic, however, rather than suffering from the sudden urge to empty a week’s worth of meals like the rest of us, including Scott, Durra, Mac, and Elliana.

Charlie touched my shoulder. “You okay, Riss?”

“Peachy,” I managed to choke out before another paroxysm had me doubling over again. He waited for it to pass, eagle eyes scanning our surroundings for dangers the rest of us were currently unable to give a crap about.

Happily (at least for me), I seemed the first to recover despite being the last through the portal. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, as my sister-in-law would say. No
wonder
nobody travels to the Underworld in physical form unless they abso-fucking-lutely
have
to. That was
way
worse than dying and being revived.” Weird that it had hurt so damned much considering I was now a full demigoddess; but that could be because I didn’t know how to use all my new abilities yet.

Charlie glanced at Sahana, and the two shared a brief snickering jag before he turned back to me. “I don’t want to seem insensitive since I obviously hit the iron-constitution jackpot, but we need to get moving like five minutes ago.”

I pushed to my feet, gritting my teeth at the lingering nausea and forcing myself to smile grimly. “You
are
an insensitive, lucky-ass SOB, but you’re also right.”

He grinned and moved to help Sahana stand. Either sheer determination had worked, or my body finally recovered: I no longer felt like my insides had been sliced, diced, and Super-Glued back together. I started to move from the foot of the portal to examine our surroundings when magic flared behind me—a shitload of pure, unadulterated Death magic. The hair on my neck
rose, and I zeroed in on Sahana, who shook her head wildly.

“Fuck!” I muttered, and whirled. That sheer amount of concentrated magic gave me a pretty good idea of who—or rather what—was trying to link up to our current location. A Death Lord. Three guesses which was most the most likely culprit.

“Can you stop it?” I threw over my shoulder as I stepped up to the pulsating mirror.

“Sorry, but no.”

The exhaustion in her voice told
why
she couldn’t.
Guess I’ll get the chance to test my Nemesis skills in the Underworld a lot sooner than I—
Inspiration struck a split second before I did, sending my booted foot back and forward with way more strength then necessary. The immediate section of mirror I kicked split into myriad pieces, which rained against my bare skin and onto the ground. A dozen shards stung my skin, but I ignored them to kick another section of mirror, then another. Death magic struggled to manifest a large enough link for its maker to travel through; struggled and failed as my foot stayed inches ahead of it. Finally I ran out of mirror to smash, and so, too, did the magic fade away.

Or, at least I
thought
it did. What actually happened was that the Death magic that had made it through the aborted portal zapped into me when it couldn’t be channeled as intended. That didn’t seem so bad considering my temporary imperviousness to death, until the magic recognized the same thing and shot straight toward the nearest living being. Charlie, the lucky-ass SOB who’d nobly put his body between Sahana and the portal and was about to die a very painful death.

His luck kicked in again in the form of someone I’d
once more underestimated. Sahana—all five feet nothing of her petite frame—barreled into Charlie with just enough force to move him so that the Death energy hit her instead of him. And, unlike me, she was very much able to properly channel it.

Her already dark eyes took on that freaky obsidian hue they got when she worked Death magic, this time becoming so dark her pupils blended in well enough they seemed to disappear. She began humming in disparate tones that should have clashed but somehow merged into a not-unpleasant melody. Her music absorbed the splashes of Death magic flooding into her although I couldn’t have said what she did with it. Asking would have just been rude.

The excitement of shattering glass and ricocheting Death magic hastened everyone else’s recovery, as evidenced by their staggering over as quickly as unsteady legs could manage, weapons drawn and fur figuratively (and not so figuratively on the part of the Hounds) bristled.

“Everyone okay?” Scott addressed the question to all of us, but his gaze focused solely on me. While seeing him safe was a relief, the pain clearly evident in his eyes was not. Could anyone blame him? He’d just violated the direct orders of his personal deity, a crime punishable by agonizing death if (gods send it not be
when
) Anubis caught up with him.

I bared my teeth at that thought. First, Jackal-Faced had to get through me. Besides which, the Triad’s decree superseded any given by an individual god. Scott had absolutely made the right choice; but I knew that wouldn’t make it any easier on him. I only hoped our relationship would be able to recover from the blow I’d been forced to deal it.

Mac, Elliana, and Durra indicated they were in mostly good shape, a sentiment soon echoed by Charlie and Sahana. She seemed to actually mean that and, looking her over with enhanced Nemesis vision, for once I believed her. Normally Sahana was the type to insist she was
just fine
even if she were bleeding out all over the place, but that infusion of ill-gotten Death energy had apparently been just what the witch doctor ordered. She noticed my skeptical inspection and gave a toothy grin. “I mean it, Riss. I’ve never felt better.”

“Okay, then. I’m going to second Charlie’s recommendation that we get the he—heck out of here.”

Durra’s lips curved in an unusually demure smile. It was almost like she’d had a personality transplant. “Motion thirded. Where to?”

Good question; one I’d been contemplating in the back of my head since I’d been tasked with making this journey. I had to find proof that Anubis had broken immortal law, but it wasn’t like I could just walk up to his Underworld followers and ask them to
pretty please
rat their lord out. That meant we had to use more roundabout methods, which was why I had wanted to make use of Liana’s extensive knowledge of Ancient Egyptian lore to discover a viable strategy for accomplishing my goals.

“The Hall of Two Truths.”

Those of us not well versed in Egyptian mythology showed little reaction. Durra, Scott, and Elliana on the other hand …

“Are you
out of your mind
?” Elliana, never one to miss an opportunity to criticize me, unconsciously touched Mac’s hand for comfort. That’s how much what I said freaked her out.

Scott muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, “I’m beginning to wonder.”

Durra frowned but didn’t dismiss me as criminally insane. “You mean to face the Feather?”

I nodded. Charlie snorted. “A feather doesn’t sound that bad.”

Elliana turned her scowl from me to him. “The Feather of Ma’at, which is the Egyptian version of an individual’s Judgment Day. And the minute she goes to invoke the Scales, the exact freaking god we just pissed off will show up immediately to oversee the weighing of her heart. Even
if
Riss manages to pass the test, Ma’at won’t be able to protect us from Anubis afterward.”

“Oh.” I attempted to keep my voice casual. “It’s not
my
heart she’s going to weigh.” Durra’s widened eyes indicated she had already caught on. Still, I spoke the rest for everyone else’s benefit. “I’m going to demand what is the right of any Fury in the Hall of Two Truths—that the heart of my quarry be measured instead of my own.”

Elliana’s mouth made like Durra’s eyes, and Scott let out an indrawn breath. “Insane—or freaking brilliant. Anubis won’t know what’s going on until it’s too late.”

“Precisely. The Feather will confirm whether or not Anubis has turned traitor against his fellow immortals.” I gave a sweet smile. “And now, if you do not mind, this
lunatic
would like to hit the road—
before
Anubis uses the nearest portal and backtracks to kick our asses.”

Not too surprisingly,
that
prospect lit a fire under their …rear ends.

WE HIKED OUT OF THE DISMAL CAVERN HOUSING
the shattered portal and found ourselves in yet another
dimly lit subterranean room. Okay, this one could more accurately be termed a tunnel since it steadily narrowed from where it jutted onto the portal room until becoming a corridor barely wide enough for three of us to pass side by side. We kept to single file for the most part, with me insisting on taking up point while Scott just as adamantly brought up our rear. I hoped that wasn’t because he was just
that
pissed off at what love for me had made him do.