Braving Fate (The Mythean Arcana Series Book 1) (29 page)

“I need you faster. And harder.”
 

He groaned at the command and began to pump her harder upon his cock, lifting her body with ease, his hands gripping her slick skin. He felt the pressure building in his balls and was desperate to make her come before he did.

He stared into her eyes as he reached down between them to rub her clitoris once again. Her eyes began to darken and her breath came quicker.
 

“Come for me,” he gritted, and his words made her cry out breathlessly. “You’re
mine
.”
 

Her eyes went shocked and blank and she cried out as her pussy began to clench around his cock, her thighs shaking and her breath coming in strangled gasps. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen as she shook in his arms, her entire body quivering. He’d wanted to hold her through her orgasm and make her come again before he found his, but he couldn’t.

His thrusts lost their grace as he felt the orgasm rip through him, his cock plunging into her clenching core as his seed shot from him. She continued to come around his shaft even after he’d finished, and when he finally felt her quiet and begin to breathe more normally, he cradled her in his arms and looked down at her. He felt like a god from the way she looked at him.
 

Then she collapsed in his arms. He laughed low in his throat as he slipped out of her and laid her back upon the bed.

“Oh,
wow
,” she sighed, shifting so that she was more comfortable. “I mean…” She was still panting, trying to catch her breath, and he dragged her up against his side. “Just
wow
.”
 

He swore he felt his chest puff up. He drew her closer to him, tucking her head under his chin.
 

He rolled over then, and looked down at her sprawled on the bed, skin flushed and her form lushly curved. She grinned up at him with a happily seductive smile.
 

“Why did you resist doing that for so long?” she asked.

He frowned. “A couple of reasons. Intimacy and trust between us could help you regain your memory. Because of our connection in the past. But mostly because I was afraid I’d fall for you.”

He’d tried to save himself the pain. Gods, he couldn’t lose her. She had become everything to him. Fear turned his contentment to a sick anxiety. But how could he keep her safe when she was the one who had to put her life in danger and he wasn’t allowed to interfere?
 

He couldn’t go back on his word, but would he be able to stop himself, when her life hung in the balance?

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“Does anyone have any ideas about how to keep me from dying?” Diana asked Cadan, Esha, and Warren. They’d just assembled in Warren’s office to discuss her options. It was still fairly early, but nerves made the idea of coffee or breakfast repulsive.
 

“Your task takes place in Erebus, a Roman afterworld. The only way for a mortal to enter an afterworld is through death,” Warren said, his face grim.

Cadan’s hand tightened around hers and she felt the tension that surrounded him as he fought to say nothing.
 

“I presume I have to kill Paulinus,” Diana said. “If I was reborn for this, it makes sense that I would have to repeat past deeds.”

“I think that I could possibly get you into Erebus,” Esha said, her brow scrunched thoughtfully.

“Nay.” Cadan bit out the word. Diana squeezed his hand.

“No, I mean, I think I can get you in without dying,” Esha said. “You know how I can see into the portal and helped you do the same? Well, since you were reborn for this, it’s possible that I can send part of your soul through the portal. Maybe it would be enough to allow you to do what’s needed.”

“How?” Diana asked.

“I can manipulate souls if I have permission from their owner. All soulceresses can. I couldn’t send just anyone to an afterworld, but because your soul is linked to Paulinus’s through death, then maybe I can project part of your soul into Erebus.” She paused. “I think.”

 
“You think?” Cadan’s voice was cutting. “That’s enough to send Diana’s soul to hell? A hunch?”

Diana pushed away the dread that filled her mind like black muck and squeezed Cadan’s hand to get him to shut up.

“Only part of her soul,” Esha said. “Like an illusion. That’s why it would be safe. Part of it would stay tethered to earth with her body.”

 
“What are my odds of dying from this?” Diana asked.

Esha stroked the disheveled black cat who jumped onto the couch next to her. “Slim, I think. Since I’m just projecting part of your soul into Erebus, your body would stay at the entrance with us. So he can’t kill your body. And he could only kill part of your soul.”

“Honestly, that sounds terrible,” Diana said.

“This is all terrible,” Esha said. “And there’s a very slim chance I wouldn’t be able to call your soul back if you get in trouble. But that’s never happened before. It really should be fine.”

Diana swallowed hard.
Should be fine.
Her life expectancy was now
should be fine.
To think that only weeks ago, her biggest concern had been whether or not she got her promotion.
 

“Any one else have any ideas?” Diana asked. Because she certainly didn’t.

“Aye,” Cadan said. “Doona do this. Let the Praesidium handle it.”

She scowled at him.

Cadan held up his hands. “Just giving other options here.”

Ha. It was a subtler expression of his control issues. “I was reborn to do this. If anyone else on the planet could have, I wouldn’t have been reincarnated. And it’s my best friend trapped there. No matter what possible evil could come of ignoring this threat, there’s
definite
evil in leaving Vi there.”

 
“She’s right,” Warren said.

Diana nodded at him, grateful that he backed her up, yet annoyed that he’d had to. “I think we should try it. How am I supposed to get Vi back?”

Esha bit her lip. “Well, she’s not supposed to be there in the first place, since she doesn’t practice that religion. Presumably. It’s been dead a couple thousand years, after all. So I think it’s the spell that’s holding her there. I can’t guarantee that when Paulinus dies and the spell is broken that she’ll wake from her coma. But at least her soul will escape. Try to grab her arm or something if you can, see if you can drag her out with you and back to earth. That way her soul could maybe reunite with her body. Otherwise her soul will go to whatever kind of afterworld she believes in. And mind you, this is just me guessing. It’s the best I can do.”

Diana nodded. She had to believe it would work.

“I want to go with her,” Cadan said.

Esha shook her head. “I can’t send two. It’s too difficult.”

“Then—”

Diana’s glare cut Cadan off. She wouldn’t object to him coming with her, but she wanted him to talk to her about it first. But it seemed it didn’t matter. She’d be going into hell alone.

Two hours later, the four of them stood in the chamber that held the portal. Two Mythean Guardians who’d been stationed in the chamber to guard the portal stood with them. Diana eyed Cadan suspiciously. He was shifting back and forth on his feet, clearly anxious and wanting to take control of the situation.
 

She wanted his help. She wasn’t stupid. With him, her odds of success were higher. But only if he didn’t try to take control and do this for her. She really believed that she was the only one who could do this. She had to believe it in order to go through with it. And she didn’t want him dying for her, especially if it wouldn’t accomplish the end goal. He’d had thousands of years being himself, living according to his code of ethics. He wouldn’t change overnight. But he was trying.

“Are you ready?” Esha asked.

Diana gripped her sword and nodded. Esha had needed to make a stop at a Mythean bar to refuel her power from other Mytheans’ souls. If this was ever going to work, it would be now, when Esha had as much power as possible.
 

Esha approached her and took her hand. Cadan and Warren stood to the side and Diana could almost feel Cadan’s anxiety.

“Don’t let go of my hand,” Esha said. “I’ll link our vision, so you can see what I see. Then I’ll try to project part of your soul.”

“Will I feel it when it splits?” Why hadn’t she thought to ask that before?

“No, because it’s not really tearing in half or anything, because it’s not a physical object. I’m just sending part of it in, and you shouldn’t feel it.”

Diana nodded. It sounded so simple in theory. But when Esha squeezed her hand and a cold frisson shot up her arm, she realized that it wasn’t simple at all. The frisson turned to heat. Then darkness. She shook her head, and realized that it wasn’t darkness, but shadows. She had to stop herself from stepping backward as they pushed out, writhing and clawing from a space at the edge of the chamber.

Their minds passed through it, and again they passed by the river Styx, through the fields, and into the forest. At some point, she felt Esha’s presence fade. She was alone. The sword felt almost natural in her hand, and for that she was grateful. It was an extra sharp security blanket. Her fist clenched around the hilt and she crept through the woods, certain that she was near the clearing that held Paulinus and Vivienne.

“What have we here?” The rough feminine voice cut through the silence.

Diana jumped and spun around to see one of the red demons bearing down on her with a sadistic grin on its birdlike face. Great wings flared from its back. Recognition dawned.
 

A harpy. Of course. This was the Roman underworld. On earth, they must hide their wings with magic to avoid attention.

She lunged at it with her sword and caught it in the arm below the fall of dark hair.
 

It shrieked and yanked a sword free of the sheath at its belt. “You’ll pay for that.”
 

The harpy swung and she parried, knocking its sword aside. They circled, trading blows, until her arm sang from the effort. Exhausted, she tripped over a root and fell on her back. The harpy leapt for her. She thrust her sword up and managed to catch it in the stomach. The sword sank grotesquely into flesh, then slid out when the harpy fell to the side, gasping.

She stumbled to her feet, but before she could rise fully, felt a slender arm wrap around her torso.

“That wasn’t very nice, was it?” The harsh voice in her ear was that of another harpy.

Clumsily, she managed to flip her sword backward and stab the thing in the stomach. It grunted and released her. She stumbled, but regained her feet and spun around to swipe her sword across its throat. It collapsed to the ground and she looked around frantically.
 

No more. Good.

And thank God she had Boudica’s talent with a sword.

She set off in the direction of the clearing until she reached the edge of the woods and crouched behind a bush. In front of her, about fifty yards away, the altar rose black and menacing out of the ground. A vision of herself bleeding atop it flashed into her mind and she flinched, her muscles tightening.
 

She was here for vengeance, here to stop something monstrous from opening into Edinburgh; but in the end, she was also here to save her friend and her own life from the man who now stood above the altar reading from his book. He wore the armor he’d died in, though it was tattered and stained with the shadows of old blood.
 

He was but a shadow of the Roman general she remembered, but enough of him was there to make her skin tighten with ancient rage. Her daughters’ murders, her own brutal beating, the destruction of her village. Now he’d threatened her life and that of her friend. Her jaw tightened.
 

As quietly as she could, she crept through the forest at the edge of the clearing, ears and eyes alert for any sign of harpies on guard. Finally, she reached the tree line directly behind Paulinus. Vivienne was only a dozen feet from her, but Diana resisted the urge to go to her friend. She needed the element of surprise.

She crept forward on quiet mouse feet and raised her sword to strike. As much as she wanted to gloat, to lord it over him that she’d defeated him again, it would be stupid. Instead, she’d finish this quickly. But as she brought the sword down, he spun and stepped backward. Her sword sliced ineffectually through the air.