Bitterness flooded my mouth, but I swallowed it down. “All right.”
“And, in exchange, you will grant me—and only me—unlimited access to the burial grounds.”
“That was not the agreement,” Ithas burst through the barrier. “I created her.”
“With the toolsIgave you. Your experiments would have failed without Dinorah.” He thrust out his arm, and lightning pierced the whirl of black. Wisps crackled and popped, a few falling like embers, but Ithas hadn’t fully manifested, and there was nothing for Dis Pater to strike, really. “I refuse to fall prey to time and allow it to erode me. I won’t wait any longer. I tire of your infernal tinkering. I claim this girl as my payment and declare our bargain done.”
With a rumbling shriek of protest, Ithas vanished into nothing, leaving a stunned Ankou behind.
An emotion that struggled hard to become pity swamped me. “What will you do with him?”
Thanks to my failed bargain for Kierce’s freedom, I had booted Ankou from the Viduus job.
“No idea.” He flicked his wrist, and Ankou disappeared. “I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
There was no time for second thoughts. No time for regrets. I had to maintain my focus.
“I’m sure you’ll want to go straight to the burial grounds, but I need to gather my family and bring them home. It’s on the way, so it won’t put you out.” I forced my gaze up to his. “That will give me a good trial run to see if you’ve truly lifted the kill order too. Once I get home and secure my family, I’ll contact you. Then you and I will go to the burial ground where I met Anunit, and I’ll grant you the access you want.”
“How do I know you won’t spend the time from here to Thunderbolt plotting against me?”
“The same way I’ll know if you’ve taken the opportunity to embed orders in Kierce that will jump up and bite me on the ass at the worst possible time. That’s where trust in this new partnership comes into play for both of us. Plus, I’m not leaving my wagon. I love that car, and I need it to get around back home.”
“Trust is off the table, but your family isn’t.Yet.Betray me, and they will be punished.”
“Punish them, and it’ll be the last thing you do. There are worse fates than death.”
And I had one all lined up for him.
The street-level door to the townhouse swung open before I could palm my key, and Josie clamped her hand around my wrist. She yanked me across the threshold, slammed the door behind Anunit, and then hugged me until I thought my stuffing might fall out.
“I’m not sure which was more terrifying,” she began. “You walking?—”
“—out the door,” Matty finished for her, “or watching Kierce headbutting marble.”
The reminder shocked my priorities into order, and I wrenched free of Josie. “I have to see him.”
“You might want us to clean him up some first.” Carter made the offer from beside the crypt door. “It’s a mess in there, and he’s at the center of it. Are you sure you want to see that?”
Nothing on Earth—or Abaddon—could have stopped me from going to him.
The door hung off its hinges, but Carter had propped it in the entrance in case Kierce got up swinging.
One look inside confirmed there was no danger of that. Kierce was healing, but he was in terrible shape.
And I had handed over the one person who could yank out the bone bullet to Dis Pater.
With a pitifulcawthat sounded like a plea for help, Badb hopped up and down on the stone bench.
“Shit.” I slipped in blood and cracked my tailbone landing next to him. “Oww.”
One of his eyes slitted open, swept down me with dull recognition, then closed again.
“Hey.” I pushed his hot, sticky hair off his face to examine him. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but we need to get the bullet out so your body doesn’t have to split its focus while healing you. Your head is a mess.” I tightened my mouth to keep my bottom lip from wobbling. “What have I done to you?”
Soft words, reassuring in their cadence, fell from his lips into the silence, but I didn’t recognize the language.
“The bullet is out.”
