my sky will hum with enough power to fuel multiple worlds…and I’ll rule them all.”
“I told you-”
“I know what you said! But Mackie will either bring me your soul pierced on the tip of his blade, or I’ll flashcook ‘Hunter’ until the connection between you burns.”
And waving her hand over her head, the pressed tin ceiling disappeared, the heat fell away with it, and I was sud denly gazing directly into her sky of souls. No denying it, I thought, breath caught in my chest. It was stunning.
“Don’t look for the Big Dog…you’re not there yet. But can you find Ursa Major?”
The Big Dipper. I traced the luminous handle, gaze catching on the two stars comprising its scoop. They were bright but not completely luminous. The gems and the soul she’d stolen to form them contained some sort of impurities that made it appear like honey had hardened inside a crystal casing. Like her aforementioned asterism.
“Check out that dreamy nadir, those golden depths. They’re perfectly identical, which is rare. Aren’t they beautiful? Don’t they remind you of…someone?”
And she beckoned the night sky down so the twin stars of the Dipper’s bowl unhinged from the sky and lowered in a dizzying and unnatural 3-D display, the other stars fading until all that remained were…
“Hunter’s eyes.” My voice cracked.
“The windows to the soul,” she agreed, motioning again. The gems lowered some more…and blinked. The rest of his body began to form out of the dark matter comprising the faux universe, like he was his own constellation, though his golden eyes remained fixed on me.
Solange was suddenly whispering in my ear. “The planets and stars are constantly evolving, Joanna. The universe is not a fixed entity, and it’s not as gentle as it looks from afar. And the requirement of any phenomenal birth or death is a wild chaos. Do you know what my favorite kind is?” She smiled at me with a beautiful sweep of those lips. “Violence.”
And Hunter blinked. Reaching up, Solange levitated, but then paused midair to look back at me. My hot blood suddenly ran cold. Her intention was written all over her beautiful face. She couldn’t touch me…so she was going to touch him.
“Take a good look at your one true love, Jaden.” She spoke softly, but every word was honed. “Because now you see her. Now you don’t.”
I whirled, lunging for the lantern closest to me, but knew I’d never make it in time. Sure enough, Hunter screamed. One hand cupped around the flame, the other poised in front of it, I could only glance up. Solange’s laughter cut the air as she returned her attention to Hunter…and plucked out his left eye.
He screamed again, the lone remaining eye blinking furiously, and I sucked in a deep breath as Solange turned back to me, hand lifting.
“Don’t you dare put that in your fucking mouth.” My voice was strained. My breath was held.
“Or what?” she said, pretty mouth twisted like a snake. But then she glanced down, recognized what I held in my hand. I’d have smiled as shock blunted her pretty features, but there wasn’t time.
“Suck it, Sola.” And I blew out the air in my throat, aiming for her face, fixed on that mouth.
The quirley was as savage as Tripp said. The smoke took on a life of its own, forceful as a rapist, and Solange screamed as she put her hands to her face and throat, eyes bulging as tar-black death whipped around her. Hunter’s gem fell from her hands, and I yelled even as I dove for it. “Io!”
Solange fell atop me, screaming and tearing at the air with her hands, smoke still ripping at her pores, but I held my breath…and made damn sure to keep my eyes closed as her hands scraped over my body. When icy palms wrapped around my shoulders, I bucked to free myself, fighting like a mental patient strapped to a gurney.
“Come back!”
I lunged upright, Io suddenly beside me, the night sky just a memory and Hunter gone. I sucked in a breath of air so cold I coughed, the ache burrowing to spread like a fissure in my lungs. Buttersnap licked at my arm, and I pushed her away so abruptly the great dog whimpered.
“Ugh,” I managed, keeping my breath shallow so I didn’t puke.
“Shh,” Io said, an arm around my waist, holding me close.
I shook her off too, needing to be untouched, alone, so the rage I was feeling wouldn’t zap anyone else. My breath rattled harshly in the too-still room. “She needs my power, my soul, to finish her horrible sky.”
Yet Midheaven was the one place I needed to go. That’s where my army was. That’s where
Io inched closer again but was careful not to touch me. When my breathing had calmed somewhat, she said,
“How do you feel?”
“Truthfully, Io?” I asked, hand over my queasy stomach. “I’m pissed.”
She stared at me with her wide, lidless gaze before nodding once. “That could work.”
Sure it could, I thought, the fresh memory of Hunter’s scream sending a shiver through me again. It ran through my body, down my limbs, and zipped to my fingertips, where I shook it off…and sent Hunter’s soul gem clattering to the floor.
I cried out and dove as I had in Midheaven, this time to save the gem from Buttersnap’s inquisitive nose. Cradling it to my chest, I looked back up at Io. She gazed back, as dumbfounded as I’d ever seen her.
And looking at the gorgeous jewel in my hand, recalling how Hunter had warned me never to return to or for him, I swore an oath to every star in the heavens above: the blow I’d just dealt Solange wasn’t even the beginning of it. Fuck the universe; fate wasn’t a fixed entity. Mortality or not-Mackie and the Tulpa and my other numerous enemies aside-I was more than happy to show Solange a wild death.
“I’ll give you the phenomenal violence you seek,” I said, cupping the gem in my palm as gently as I would a baby bird. “I’ll deal it to you like a hand of soul poker.”
I’d deal it out in fucking spades.
27
Winter’s dawn along the Mojave flats was as beautiful as a tea ceremony. The outlines of the scraggly Joshua trees were backlit in baby blues, a precursor to the pastels soon to sweep the sky. Mountains loomed in lavender, and the soft desert scents were still in evidence, though like all shy desert things, they too would soon go into hiding. I’d avoided watching dawn or dusk in the last weeks because those moments broke my heart. The veil between this world and the Zodiac’s alternate reality was thinnest then. That was when troops crossed from their sanctuary back into mortal reality, so it was poetic to be leaving Frenchman Flat at this time, returning to the city coiled like a bright snake, waiting for my return.
Just like the agents of Light, I thought, spotting Felix and Micah still lined against the invisible border just beyond rogue territory. I walked toward them in the new day’s chill, the rocky desert crunching beneath my boots while eggshell and pink warred with one another in giant, silken swaths across the lightening sky.
“A pretty day to die,” Carlos remarked, watching the sparse, wispy clouds evaporate with the last tendrils of night. I gave him a sidelong look and his hands went up. “What? I didn’t mean you. Just in general.”
I adjusted the holster at my waist, and the agents of Light drew in tighter on the other side of the invisible line. In addition to the two men, there were only Tekla and Kimber. Warren probably had them guarding the border in rotations. I ran a hand over my hair, slicked into a low bun, then dropped it, aware of how much nervousness the movement contained. The Light stood across from me, wide-legged and still, and I tried to imagine what Carlos and I looked like as we approached in the cold dawn. Probably pretty ragtag. I was an outcast, with only mortal fighting skills and a mutant hound tethered to my side. Carlos was just plain disreputable in his shitkickers and dusty jeans, the scruff shadowing his cheeks a good couple of days beyond sexy.
I halted only feet from the barrier, letting the day fully claim the sky before speaking. “Micah. Tekla.”
Felix gave me a little wave and I smiled at him, but before I could get too comfortable, Kimber made her presence known. As usual she was pumped and pissed, kohldarkened eyes narrowed, chipped, black nails poised on her dart gun. Following my gaze, she smiled evilly. “I won’t miss this time.”
