“Thaaanks.” I grumbled about it but let them hug me. “Before we go up, I need to tell you a few things.”
With the thumbtack clearing my head, I confided every single thing down to the last detail.
What I learned in Abaddon. What Ithas had told me. What I knew about wielding Dinorah.
That way, if I forgot again, they could remember for me. They could hold the knowledge safe so no gods, or god bloods, could leverage the information against us. Unfair to burden them with it, but I didn’t see an alternative.
The tack would run out of magic, and there was no guarantee Lucia would continue sharing her supply. Add to that, I wasn’t sure I would ever see her again after she got her revenge. This might be the last time the bits and pieces formed a completed puzzle, and it would be foolish of me not to share the big picture with someone.
A rumble erupted beneath our feet, and we stared at one another.
“Not that way.” I grabbed them before they could get the door open onto Chartres. “This way.”
I hustled them into the elevator, and we rode up in silence. The second the doors rolled open onto the living room, we sprinted through to the gallery overlooking Chartres for a birds-eye view of the street.
Hands curling around the wrought iron railing, I stared down at Ankou, who was flanked by two men.
The scene kicked off a sense of déjà vu, and my gaze strayed beyond them. Fear that Kierce had been pried from the crypt sent my pulse galloping, but there was no sign of him. He was still safe. Still inside. How long that remained the case once the gods came out to play, I couldn’t say, but I would do my damnedest to protect him.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,” Ankou shouted when he saw me. “Let down your hair.”
“Fuck off,” Josie yelled back, her eyes blazing green as vines peeled off the walls beside us to snake down the building toward him. “Or did you change your mind about exploring the whole hentai thing?”
A thick vine struck the pavement inches from Ankou’s foot, and he hopped back with a curse.
“Temper, temper.” A dark blur flew overhead. The omen. She was here. “Your father would like a word, my duck. Best you don’t keep him waiting. Pack a bag, kiss your loved ones, and come home like a dear.”
“Ithas can rot in Hell.” I tracked her arc through the sky. “Biblically speaking.”
Abaddon might not be a fiery pit of despair, but my quasi-Catholic upbringing had painted a vivid picture of their Hell. Another tool the sisters had used to keep the young and afraid in line. That was the place I wished I could banish Dis Pater to, so he could play rotisserie chicken for demons, rotating on a spit over an open flame for all eternity.
“Well, that’s not very nice, is it?”
“I’m not helping Ithas fulfill his grand vision. Dinorah deserves her peace, and I intend to lay her to rest.”
“And Berchem?” She laughed mockingly. “Will you let him go so easily?”
“Kierce deserves his peace too.”
Hard to read shock on a bird’s face, but her beak went slack as she scrambled for what to say. That bird had taunted me about Berchem for as long as I had known her. I just hadn’t remembered what a hateful little shit she was until now.
“Who told you…?” She missed a wingbeat, tipping sideways, and almost clipped her head on the roofline. “How do you remember…?”
“It’s enough you know that I do. Pass it along to the gods, will you? Let them know I’m aware of who and what I am now.”
A shudder rippled through her, or maybe it was a shiver. Either way, it spooked her enough to fly away.
Good.
One less thing.
She didn’t have to know the threat was more of a bluff.
“Bijou, come down here and talk this out with me, or I’ll be forced to go in after you.”
That he hadn’t threatened to come for Kierce, or yank the bullet from his body, left me more suspicious of his motives than ever. He must know Kierce was here, even if he couldn’t sense him. Why not use him against me? Lord knows, he had made a hobby of it up until now.
“He can’t enter,” Vi said over my shoulder. “The loa reinforced my wards.”
