She reluctantly swam out of her innermost self, back up to the hell around them, battles of demons and ghosts fighting the dead and magir still trying to escape.
And there, the large hero Ti-gí. He studied her, his head tilted to one side. Then he smiled. “Ah, Valentine Darkmore. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Ti-gí’s body began to decay, turning to bloody mush as she watched.
“Weak,” he said, garbled, before his face detonated, spattering the street that disappeared under the growing murk of fog.
She took a step back, alarmed, because even for the dead, the power radiating from his demise felt cloying.
A ball of light appeared and grew.
Grizz took a step in its direction.
“Grizz?”
“I sense a brother.”
“Brother?”
Val watched as the light slowly dimmed and grew into a large gray form. Before she knew it, a gargoyle as large as Grizz had taken shape. It didn’t feel alive, yet she knew the power inside it.
“Nergal?”
“In the flesh,” came his amused answer, his voice impossibly deep. “Or should I say, in the stone?” He laughed, and the demons around him grew shrill, enraged, and attacked with more vigor.
A screaming eagle dove for several, taking them in bloody talons before ripping them apart. Talon at her back. Near him, two large bears continued to battle to save fellow magir. A few wolves and a tiger raced past her, helping as well.
Talon’s pack—her pack too, she guessed—hadn’t bailed when they could have. Hell, when theyshouldhave.
Aisha, protect them as best you can.
Yes, Val.
Focusing once more on Nergal, she put a hand on Grizz to steady herself. “What do you want, great Lord of the Underworld?”
He flapped his massive wings. “Why, your heart, dear one. It beats for me, you know.”
“My…what?”
“You, Valentine. You are my stone, my treasure. And I want you back. Right now.”
He rushed her and would have taken her had Grizz not stopped him. So fast and lethal, Nergal brushed the tip of a clawed hand against her before Grizz knocked him aside.
“Get him, Grizz,” she ordered. “You can do it!”
“Yes, Val.” He laughed with joy, the gargoyle who’d given his life freely to protect, to fulfill her purpose.
Val released her hold on him, giving him back the freedom he’d more than earned.
She didn’t feel any less weighted down by all the dead she controlled.
She should have.
Before she could figure out why Grizz’s presence, or lack thereof, had no effect on her death magic, a scream shook her.
Talon was in trouble.
She rushed toward the sound, not seeing the danger until it was too late.
