Blackhearted Betrayal (32 page)

Anubis zeroed in on Ala as well, but
her
emotions were much different. She looked at her fellow immortal with what appeared very much like …hunger.

Ala and Epona began a back-and-forth exchange with the traitorous duo while I tried to puzzle that out. My eyes moved from Ala to Anubis, then Kamanu, before moving back to Ala. I’d expected my stunning coup of showing up with the remaining two-thirds of the Triad to intimidate the lovers into surrendering or at least temporary withdrawal since two greater gods of their strength easily outclassed one greater god and a lesser. They should have looked worried when Ala and Epona showed up. Instead, they seemed unsurprised and even pleased.

Painful realization flared when I thought about just how eager Anubis had been to get me out of the Hall of Two Truths—ostensibly to even the odds in her favor. But that didn’t make a damned bit of sense upon closer inspection. She and Kamanu would have
known
the first action I would take would be to summon the cavalry in the form of Epona and Ala.
They
wanted
me to bring them. Or at least—her!

Nike hissed.
Ala?

Yes. This whole thing is a trap!

Ala had suspected treachery for some time—likely one of the primary reasons Anubis had sealed off her realm to the rest of the Underworld. On the flip side, that also meant they couldn’t just lure Ala here easily once they were ready to strike—but I’d gone and brought her
straight here for them. Of course, Nyx had transported the Hall
out
of Duat, weakening Anubis slightly, but every other immortal except Nyx would suffer a decrease in power as well.

But why? What are they planning—

I spun a moment too late to prevent the trap from springing. Yet
another
group of Furies—this one led by a crazy-eyed Medea inside Nan’s body—had leaped out of the portal from the Palladium and spread out to effectively cut the dais off from the rest of the room. I had barely started considering how best to break their blockade when Stacia herded a group of priests through the line of Furies, dragging a struggling Serise while Khenti-Manu manhandled Trinity in his wake. Seeing Khenti-Manu had acid churning inside my belly. He had proven to be particularly skilled at transmutation and been the only priest to succeed at removing an
immortal
from his body.

My gaze zoomed back to Ala, then Anubis, who wore an even greater look of avarice upon her deceptively lovely face. I started to blurt out my sudden flash of suspicion to the immortal next to me, but Trinity’s voice let out a scream of agony.

I whirled a second time, only to find Trinity now in Medea’s not-so-gentle hands, my partner’s gag removed and blood flowing from an awful, gaping wound in her side. Rage surged, and I forgot about everything but Trinity and how I
refused
to watch another friend die before my very eyes. Medea met me with an expression of triumph, but I blocked it from my mind, finding it much easier to assault the Fury wearing my grandmother’s face than I once would have expected. She met my frenzied attacks blow for blow at first, but quickly
tired in the face of my enhanced Nemesis abilities. Still, the bitch knew I wouldn’t kill her—not when there was a chance to restore Nan to her rightful place. I growled at that thought and mustered my strength and speed to break past her defenses to coldcock her. She slid to the ground with a satisfyingly stunned expression.

I dropped down and ripped off one of Trinity’s sleeves to pack against her wound, reminded of another time I’d had to field-dress a serious injury she’d sustained while helping me. She coughed and opened pain-racked eyes, and I cursed.
Gods, you cannot
do
this to me again!

“Riss, I’ll be okay.”

The blood soon soaked the sleeve, so I ripped off the other and pressed it tightly to her side, ignoring her ridiculous claim. She winced but didn’t complain, instead moving unsteady fingers to push mine away and take up the grisly chore. “I mean it, I’m fine. She missed anything vital, and your mother
needs
your help!”

That was one of the few things that could have gotten me to leave her, especially since cruel reality had set in. Other than applying pressure to her wound—which she could clearly do herself—I was no help. I could
not
heal others. Still, how could I just leave her unprotected? Someone let out a fierce roar nearby and barreled straight through two enemy Furies with little trouble. My eyes widened but then returned to normal when Charlie threw himself down next to us. A Giant whose loved one was in danger made a formidable foe indeed.

He tore off his shirt and took over staunching Trinity’s blood loss. “No one shall harm her further, Riss, that I promise. Now go to your mother!”

I turned, expecting to see Mom helping overpower Anubis, only to see the tide of battle had changed once
more. Ala and Epona faced off against Kamanu and Anubis while Mom and—Durra—struggled to get through a group of enemy Furies separating them from Khenti-Manu, now chanting over Serise and Stacia, both of whom lay upon the ground; one because she chose to and the other because four Furies were holding her down. Seeing the pregnant Harpy Queen fighting uselessly for not just her freedom but that of her unborn child galvanized me into action.

The line of Furies—outnumbering us four to one—stood no chance against multiple Nemeses, which we proved by mowing them down in double-time fashion. Quick as we were, however, Khenti-Manu had made it most of the way through his spell by the time we loomed over him. When Nike spat venom onto his face, he squealed in terror and slipped away into the fracas. The four traitors holding Serise down vanished just as quickly, leaving her to lurch to her feet and Mom and me to turn our ire upon Stacia—only to find her shade dissipating in front of us.

I let out a harsh breath since nobody had struck her a single blow, then narrowed my eyes. It wasn’t a quick dissolution of a slain shade like I’d witnessed firsthand previously, more a slow, lingering process, likely a result of the interrupted transmutation. Still, once her spirit had disappeared completely, and Serise stepped forward to thank me, I remained on edge. She froze when I raised my talons threateningly. “Where did we find my niece when she ran away from the safe house recently?”

Her mouth made a confused
O
at the seemingly irrelevant question, but then she nodded in realization. “In the alley behind the movie theater near the Boylston T stop.”

Not likely that anyone else knew that specific a detail, but I couldn’t risk the possibility. “Who was she facing in that alley?”

She gestured. “Why, the Fury standing beside you, the one I saved you from in the subway at your mother’s”—another quick gesture—“request.”

My body relaxed slightly. Stacia might have ferreted out a detail about one of those occasions, but I doubted she would know that much about the two separate attacks. Durra must have shared my opinion, because she moved to help support the panting Harpy Queen.

I licked my noticeably dry lips. “Please don’t tell me the baby’s coming
now
!” She remained obligingly silent, but her expression said it all. “Son of a—” I met Durra’s sympathetic gaze. “Can you get her over there to Trinity and Charlie? He’ll keep her safe so you can rejoin the fight.”

Of course, they’d need more than an overprotective Giant to see them through the next few minutes. I glanced at the portal to the Palladium and saw Sahana fighting alongside Scott, Mac, Elle, and a group of loyal Furies. Battle shifted, and I spied another combatant fighting for our side—the Cat shade, Nemesis spitting at enemies from her shoulder. I was pleasantly surprised that the feline hadn’t turned tail to fight for Anubis again—especially considering how outnumbered they’d been earlier—but Nemesis riding so close to her exposed neck had no doubt discouraged
that
.

Nike, have Nemesis tell the Cat they need to get Sahana over to Trin and Charlie
now.
She’s better than nothing and may be able to keep Trin alive and Serise’s baby from coming long enough for us to
win
this damned thing.

Seconds later Scott and Elle began forging a path from the portal to the dais, and I let out a relieved sigh, then turned to Mom at my side. “Mom, we’ve got to get Nan back to her body
now
, while Medea’s out cold, if she’s to have any chance of taking it back.”

Her expression became uncertain as her sense of duty warred with the personal desire to save her mother. I’d faced that battle myself and knew I
should
have done the right thing and sacrificed Nan for the greater good, but gods damn it, she
deserved
to get her body back, and I still had that ace up my sleeve—or at least close enough to call on for help if need be. I motioned to where Nan could be seen fighting alongside Mijai and their fellow shades. “Go! I’ll take care of things here.”

She’d always trusted me to do what I said, and that time proved no exception. She patted my shoulder roughly, unfurled her wings, and launched herself into the air, leaving me to lend aid to Ala and Epona. I leaped upon the back of a Fury trying to distract Ala from behind, and the next several moments passed in a frantic blur of kicking, punching, and clawing, the rough-and-tumble Fury way of battle. It seemed like an eternity before I finally dispatched my last opponent, only to turn and find the tides of war had turned once more.

Most of
our
lesser-god allies had either been temporarily knocked out of commission or were desperately battling with certain of
Anubis’s
divine minions. Kamanu had lured Epona to the far side of the dais, leaving Ala alone to deal with Anubis. The greater goddess should have had no trouble subduing the lesser, except for one fact: Sean and several other lesser immortals had shown up to bring Ala down to her knees. Anubis knelt next to her, that hungry expression making her face
uncharacteristically ugly. She moved slightly, and I figured out where Khenti-Manu had run off to: straight to his goddess’s side.

He began chanting and weaving Death magic between the two immortals, confirming my absolute worst fears. Anubis hadn’t ordered an arcane transmuted into a lesser god’s body on a mere whim, she’d done it to be sure she could safely take the next logical step with greater assurances of success: transmuting a lesser god into the body of a greater.
That
had been her plan all along, to steal Ala’s body, powers, and godhood, not amassing enough political and magical power to become a Deity in her own right. Why do
that
when this method was so much quicker, easier, and—thanks to her affair with Ala’s husband—more personally satisfying? Besides which,
this
way she had a guarantee of taking two-thirds control over the immortal world’s chief governing body.

The familiar scent of berries and sandalwood wafted to my nose just before a hand settled upon my shoulder. “We have to stop him
now
.”

I nodded, feeling renewed determination now that Scott was by my side. New arrivals pressed close, turning out to be Mac and Elle leading several of Epona’s lesser-god allies, who had gotten separated during the heat of battle.
Now
we had a better chance of success. Before I could second-guess the decision, I channeled Rage to amp up my speed as much as possible, leaped into the air, flapped my wings, and soared over the group of lesser gods to land upon Khenti-Manu, slashing my talons deeply across his throat before anyone could react. He slid to the ground in a gurgling heap, dead within seconds. His unfinished spell exploded in a violent starburst of Death magic, a burst that Anubis took
the brunt of. She collapsed upon the floor without a sound, something that had me frowning until a telltale shimmer of silver and black gave me the vital clue: Her spirit was trapped midway between her body and Ala’s, much the way that Imseti was trapped in limbo.

The silver-and-black energy twisted in an angry torrent, zooming toward the figure writhing upon the ground. I grinned when my secret weapon in the form of Durra stepped forward to block its path. Anubis’s spirit wasn’t particularly intimidated by the lone Fury—until red leather uniform turned to black, and Durra’s features were replaced by Adesina’s. Anubis finally realized what I had earlier: that Mom and the Megaera had decided I would need another Nemesis by my side in the Underworld and pulled a fast one on us all. The incorporeal immortal sizzled furiously before veering toward Ala, who had taken advantage of the distraction provided by Scott and company to overpower the remaining immortals who had made the mistake of continuing to hold her down. Ala let out a mocking laugh as Anubis’s soul buzzed around her impotently. No way would the lesser goddess any longer be able to oust the greater, not without aid from other Deities and her powerful priest to finish the spell that would have made it virtual child’s play. She figured out the truth at the same time I did, then flew toward me instead. I scrambled back, unwilling to chance whether Rage-filled Mandate would allow me to ward her off even though I was still in demigoddess form. The cloud of silver-and-black light made what sounded like a very humanlike shriek and arrowed toward the figure who had just stepped in front of me protectively. Scott.

Anubis must have decided he would make a suitable
receptacle because the cloud never slowed, arcing into Scott’s body with enough force to knock him off his feet. “No!” I screamed before rushing to his side—too late. Scott stood with a strange expression, blinking several times before his eyes became silver-rimmed neon yellow, even more inhuman than his Hound eyes.