The Darkest Secret

No denying that. But how? Did she and Amun not actually have to hike anywhere to reach a new realm? Could the realms simply come to them? How odd, if so. Was that normal?

Was anything normal in hell? she thought with a humorless laugh.

They stopped at the booth.

«You want tickets or not?» the sweating man demanded in a voice so low, so deep, there were echoes of darkness bubbling beneath the surface.

Shuddering, Haidee opened her mouth to shout, «Hell, no,» but Amun’s next words stopped her. Tell him yes.

Damn it. Why? Just then, she hated that their mind-connection didn’t go both ways. «Yes,» she forced herself to say. «We want tickets.»

Glittering red eyes swept over them both. He raised his arm, fingers opening to reveal a dull, bloodstained blade in his palm. «First, I’ll need your hearts.»

«His heart isn’t human,» Haidee said, jabbing her thumb in Amun’s direction.

The big man gave Haidee his full attention and licked his greasy lips. «Yours will do. You can pay for him another way.» He stroked himself. «Know what I mean?»

Amun stiffened, and suddenly utter menace poured from him. Take what we need from the backpack, he said. His timbre was flat, but all the more fiery for it.

She pulled the backpack forward. I need two—she gulped—human hearts, she thought and reached inside. What would she do if nothing—

She almost gagged when she encountered two warm, velvet-wrapped…things. «Paying another way won’t be necessary.» She did gag when she handed both to the man, and he greedily ripped away the material to view the still-thumping organs inside. And when he tore a hunk from both with his teeth, tasting the tissue as he would a fine wine, she had to swallow a surge of bile.

He nodded in satisfaction, all three of his chins bobbing with the movement. «Go ahead and pass.» An evil grin split his lips, and she saw the crimson…food stuck between his teeth. «Enjoy yourselves, you hear? I have a real good feeling the performers’ll enjoy you.»

For a moment, she could only stare at him. He loved to torture females and animals — in that order. How she knew, she couldn’t have said. She just knew. And she wanted to kill him. Badly.

Why shouldn’t she? she thought next, her skin chilling several degrees. She was loaded down with blades. A simple jab, jab and he would—

You can’t kill him, Amun told her.

Her eyes widened. How had he known what she was planning? Could he now read her thoughts? Or had his demon — his demon, she thought, nodding. Secrets. There was a warm, dark cloud whisking through her head. The same warm, dark cloud she’d noticed the two times Amun had shown her bits and pieces of her past.

That’s how she knew about the man. That’s why her temperature had dropped.

When the demon claimed Amun’s attention, or sought her own, his skin warmed and hers chilled, the same as when they were making love. Right now, Amun was practically on fire.

«You just gonna stand there?» the beefy man cackled, dragging her from her thoughts.

Shit! She’d allowed herself to be distracted. «Why can’t I kill him?»

Come on. Amun twined their fingers and started forward, maneuvering around the man — only to twist and strike with his free hand, embedding a blade in the man’s spinal cord. Crack. There was a gurgle, that beefy body convulsing, slumping, falling over. Skin turned to ash, and bone to liquid, the ash drifting away in the breeze, the liquid forming a black, oozing puddle. Oh, and to answer your question, you couldn’t kill him because the privilege belonged to me.

When Amun straightened, looking anywhere but at Haidee, he once again started forward. She could only gape up at him, astonished. «Why’d you get the privilege?»

He planned to find you later and…do things to you.

«How do you know?» She knew the answer before she finished asking the question. His demon. Again.

I told you. I read all minds but yours.

«I remember.» She pushed out a breath. «And thank you.»

Thank you? You don’t think me malicious? I just killed in cold blood.

«Malicious? For avenging me? No.» Amun must have forgotten that she had wanted to plant a blade in the man, too. «I think you’re sweet and maybe even went a little easy on the bastard. I would have forced him to eat his own intestines.»

A warm chuckle drifted through her mind as Amun’s fingers squeezed hers in thanks of his own. He’d truly expected her to balk, she realized. Later, she would have to tell him about some of the things she had done over the years, all in the name of vengeance and, foolishly, world peace.

As if the world would be a better place without Amun.

They remained on the gravel path for several minutes. Over and over Haidee’s attention strayed as she searched for the animals she’d seen earlier. She expected them to reappear and launch at her, jaws snapping. Constantly she tripped, but Amun never let her fall. Even better, he never berated her for her lack of concentration as Micah would have done. To him, it was mission first, feelings second.

When you were stalking evil or being stalked by evil yourself, you were to think only of destroying that evil. You weren’t to worry about any physical pain you might suffer. You weren’t to consider what might happen to the innocents around you. And most assuredly, you weren’t to place your fate in anyone else’s hands.

«Come,» a withered female in front of one of the tents suddenly called. «I tell you what awaits. You pay me with a scream.»

Haidee replied before she could think better of it. «I’m not screaming.»

«You will. Oh, you will.» A gnarled finger pointed at her, and a cackling laugh sounded. «Best go no farther, hateful girl. Death, death is what awaits you. And pain, so much pain. Soon. Soon you pay me.»

The prediction was so close to what Haidee had endured countless times in the past, she couldn’t shake a sudden sense of unease. Soon, the old crone had said, and the urge to rush over there and shake the woman, to demand answers, overwhelmed her. She would shake the bitch, she thought, starting forward.

«Oh, I’ll pay you all right.»

Cackling.

Distantly, she thought she felt something — someone, Amun — tugging at her back. She didn’t care. Couldn’t care. When she tried to pull from Amun’s hold, he tightened his grip.

«I have to go to her. Have to—'

Don’t listen to her. Remember what the angel told us? Trust no one.

It took a superhuman effort, but Haidee managed to stop and look away from that stooped body. The moment she did, the overwhelming urge left her. «Thank you. Again.»

There’s no need to thank me, Haidee. He stuffed a piece of paper in his pocket. Come on.

He ushered her off the pathway. He zigzagged and ducked behind the tents, always maintaining a tight grip on her. She had been chased over the years and had chased others, so she knew what he was doing. Preventing anyone from locking on them, their every move random, unpredictable.

«What’s the game plan?» she asked.

While you chatted with the self-professed seer, I had the pack provide instructions for successfully navigating this place.

«And?» she asked.

Another scroll. It said we must find the Horsemen.

Horsemen? «I don’t understand.»

We must find the Horsemen, he repeated. Of the Apocalypse.

Oh, dear God. «You’re kidding me.» Please let him be kidding.

I wish I were. Through death or some other means, the scroll said they were our only way out