Cheat the Grave

I glanced back up at him, knowing we were remembering the same thing. “I told you then that I hoped someone, someday, would feel as strongly toward you as I did for Ben.”

And Solange was rabid when it came to him.

“But that wasn’t the truth,” I went on, pushing my cup away. “What I meant was I wanted someone to feel that way about me. Strong enough to put me first. To stay. No matter what.”

His voice softened, his eyes turned pleading. “It wasn’t that simple.”

I cocked a brow, voice flat. “So you’ve said.”

And I’d heard enough. I stood, wanting out of the earth room, or the jungle book, or wherever the fuck I was. My gaze momentarily caught on a flickering movement behind a flowing willow but the tree fronds only swayed in a soft breeze, sparkling with little lights and tiny chimes.

“Just finish the manual.” He stood too, pleading with his eyes. “It will make a difference. It will matter.”

It was a dark matter, I thought, jaw clenching. And I was gray. “Here’s what matters. You told your wife I’m the Kairos, and now she’s sent Mackie after me.”

“She’s the only one here in full possession of her soul. You, me, the other women. We all have less than her. We are less than her.”

“So your wife is invincible?”

His jaw clenched again at wife but he jerked his head. “Yes.”

I raised my brows. “All-knowing, all-seeing? As close to a goddess as you can come?”

“Over here she is the goddess.”

I tilted my head, thought about it a little more, then held out my hand. “Give me my gem.”

“What?”

“The one you said you stole from her sky. I want it.”

He narrowed his eyes, and there was that strange shifting of expressions again, one below the other. “I can’t.”

“Because the goddess will know if you do?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“Then how the hell did you manage to steal a gem from her beloved soul sky without her knowing?”

Hunter froze. And laughter bubbled in the trees, ringing bells, sending the lights to sway. “Very good, Archer.”

I wasn’t the Archer. But Hunter didn’t know that…and therefore neither did Solange. She sauntered from behind an elm like the goddess everyone thought she was. I knew I’d seen movement there.

She was dressed in low-cut silver or gray, it altered depending on how she moved through the light, and swept the ground cover as she walked. She held up something misshapen and tiny that winked bloodred in the meager light.

“Hold her,” she told Hunter, and before I even had a chance to bolt, he had my arms pinned to my side. Yet his grip was gentle, like a caress, which made it worse. I got a whiff of his skin as his breath rustled my hair, and an image flashed through my mind, his naked legs folded like wings over mine. Cringing, I pushed it away.

“First Regan. Now Solange.” I could almost make a paper doll chain with all his betrayals.

He drew closer, as if his touch was an embrace.

“Your boner is trespassing,” I said roughly, bringing my heel up and back. He grunted, doubling forward, but didn’t let go.

Solange’s laugh sent the bells to tinkling again. “Darling Joanna, as feminine as ever. But what on earth have you done to your aura? You look positively gray.”

I am a gray.

“You can see that?” Just keep her talking. Talk…and maybe someone would find me.

In a dead man’s hidden room. Yeah, that was likely.

Rolling my soul gem in her fingertips, Solange lifted a slim shoulder. “One’s aura is both protection and an indication of their life energy. It’s like a cloak thrown about the shoulders. You look positively naked.”

“It’s my chakras. They’re all out of balance.”

She closed a fist over my soul. “Maybe it’s the Shadow overtaking the Light in you.”

I shook my head. “I’m no longer an agent of Light. Warren kicked me out of the troop.”

Hunter jolted. Solange scoffed. “Warren would never do that. After all, you’re the Kairos, right? A perfect balance of Shadow and Light.”

And she smiled sweetly, like it made me special.

Like it made me a target.

Hunter tensed, as did I. Solange held her smile as she lifted my misshaped stone to her lips and placed it in her mouth, and with it held between her teeth, blew me a kiss. Yet it was the siren waves of her mahogany hair that blew back over her shoulders as the starlight on her breath hit me. I inhaled involuntarily and her wordless voice whistled in my lungs. It said I would die. It promised immediately. And on the exhale, I screamed.

A crack sounded overhead, drowning my voice and shaking the trees above us. I didn’t know what I’d done, but the foliage trembled and stone lanterns toppled. The lights above winked violently, the bells clanging like funeral tones. My heart caught its rhythm again…and immediately started pounding.

Hunter looked up. “That was on your side.”

Another crack, followed by a thundering rumble. The sky darkened to opaqueness and the garden grew misty, blurring around us.

“No.” Solange stood, fists clenched as if to beat the fog away. “You won’t escape that way again.”

“I’ve got her,” Hunter said, strengthening his hold and yanking me to him so hard my newfound breath was again lost. He put his forearm around my neck, and I knew I’d be unconscious in seconds. When he leaned in to squeeze, though, the sky splintered again, and in the wake of the reverberating rumble, he whispered, “Run.”

Solange straightened, eyes alight with black fury. She lifted another stone to her mouth, and I bolted, burying myself in greenery, but not before I felt the wind lash my back…and heard Hunter’s deep wail.

I saw nothing between the mist and deepening sky. I tripped over roots and rocks, but kept sprinting in one direction. If it was a room, it had to have walls, right? Meanwhile, Solange’s blown kiss chased me, surrounding me like the waves of a dozen oceans, pushing and pulling me at the same time, seeking entry to what remained of my soul.

Hitting the ground, I kept low as the alive, seeking air blasted overhead, and moved beneath the verdant ferns until I found an ancient poplar. It was so dark now that even squinting as I pivoted around the trunk I was unable to see my body below me. So I squealed when I found myself face-to-face with Hunter.

“Listen,” he ordered, darting a glance over his shoulder. “I need to choke you out. Unconsciousness is the fastest way to get out of here. Whoever’s trying to get to you may not have an anchor, but they’ve got willpower and your corporeal body next to them.”

Did I want to go back to someone like that?

Hunter wasn’t offering me a choice. “Once you’re on the other side you can’t ever come here again. Not for anything. Not at any cost. It won’t be worth it.”

“Why?”

“Because your soul is in her sky, Jo…”

No, it’s in her mouth.

“It’s just a sliver, and imperfections abound, but it’s enough to control you.”

I filed that information away for later, if there was a later, and shook my head. “I mean why are you protecting me?”

He was close enough that I saw the sadness spring up, outlining his irises. But Solange called out to him then, and though it sounded like she was still in the clearing, her voice was a bullet. It bowed him over. He fell into the mist and onto an earth as black as the sky above.

That’s what happened under Solange’s control.

I joined him, diving to where he’d disappeared. I thought he’d be unconscious himself, but his hands immediately found my neck. I startled, my first instinct to pull away, but Solange had used him to lure me here, and he’d defied her to get me back out. As his fingers tightened around my neck, I realized he was going to pay for