He reached for my hand, and I grasped his as tightly as I could manage while we peered through the bars at the two people who mattered most to us at this moment. “Look, Jasmine,” he whispered.
“It is as if Zel ’s skin was spel ed to return to its former position!” And, of course, it probably was. That’s what happens when you tattoo a rune onto your forearm.
Zel , being an English speaker, had translated it for himself. Slowly, as the edges of his existing tattoo melded with the severed portion and the dying tissue underneath began to heal, the words revealed themselves until I could read the entire phrase.
I pul ed the Rocenz clear of my belt and held it in front of me as I repeated the words now glowing a vivid red on Zel Culver’s arm. “The soul splits, pairs and destroys, until it is one again.” The silver tool heated so quickly I was afraid I’d have to drop it. I was about to grab the hem of my shirt to use as a buffer when it reached maximum temperature and began to separate, a crack appearing right up the side of the handle of the hammer where it met the chisel. I grabbed the edges with both hands, not pul ing, just holding each side firmly as a sound as loud as a rifle shot came from the tool and it tried to jump out of my hands. Again with the popping sound, four more times as the two parts of the Rocenz released one another. And, final y, I stood before the gates of hel holding Cryrise’s hammer in my right hand and Frempreyn’s chisel in my left.
I laughed out loud as Brude screamed inside my head and blood poured out of both my nostrils.
“Go ahead, you fucker,” I whispered to the
CHAPTER THIRTY- SEVEN
I set the chisel that had been carved from the rail who’d failed to beat Lucifer at his own game against the bloody maw of the mastiff and hauled the hammer back for my first true blow against Brude since he’d invaded my head four weeks before.
“Wait!” Raoul’s warning, bel owed from three feet away, nearly put me on my knees. “Remember the warning on the map that led us to the Rocenz in the first place!” I turned to look at him, my eyes scanning the horizon for the source of the howls that stil split the air intermittently as he pul ed the rol ed leather out of his pocket and unfolded it. Zel cleared his throat. In fact, he seemed to be on the verge of saying something a couple of times, but then he pressed his lips together and stared at the toes of his boots.
As soon as Raoul held the map so we could see it, he said, “The message at the bottom. It’s clear, yes? ??Who holds the hammer stil must find the keys to the triple-locked door.’ That has to refer to Zel . We needed him. We needed his skin. And we needed the spel on his skin.” I didn’t mention that the first key to Zel had been my Granny May. Or that the last key had been a demon. Neither one seemed like a comfortable subject to bring up at the moment. And since they had worked, it seemed doubly unnecessary.
Zel opened his mouth, but Helena put a hand on his newly healed arm and murmured something. Since her lips were partial y hidden by the fence, I could only read the last part, which was, “for themselves.” What did we need for ourselves? Before I could waste time guessing Vayl said, “I wil agree with that assumption.”
Raoul went on. “But the phrase at the top of the map must be just as important. More so, because it’s mentioned first. ‘Cursed and thrice cursed be ye who raise the Rocenz without offering proper dues or sacrifice. For Cryrise’s hammer and Frempreyn’s chisel may spel your salvation, or your doom,’” he read. He stared hard at us. “I hate to ask for theories on that meaning, because I know what kinds of ideas I’m having. I’ve only known demons’ minds to track one way when they start talking sacrifice.” His eyes went from Lotus to Astral to Vayl to me. Then he included Helena and Zel in his concern before he said, “I think this tool has to have blood before it wil work properly.
In fact”—he stopped, shook his head, forced himself to go on—“I think it needs death.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. Back in Marrakech, Kyphas only had to rub her blood on it and chant a few words before she separated the parts. She was already working her heartstone when I found her.”
Raoul held up his fingers as he ticked off his objections. “She’s a demon. They can use the tool differently. She told you that herself.”
“True,” I admitted. I looked at Zel . “You got anything to add?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Nothing that wil not make my tongue turn to ash inside my mouth the moment I say it. I can only confirm what you deduce on your own.”
Vayl stepped forward. “Is that why you are here, Zel ? Did they capture you and bring you to hel because you know al the secrets of this tool, and it is so valuable that they cannot risk al owing your soul to fly free?”
Zel nodded. “You hit that one on the head.”
“And this last secret?” Vayl continued. “Are we on the right track?” Zel just stared. Vayl’s smile looked a lot more triumphant than I felt. “I wil take your silence as a positive sign.” He turned to Raoul. “Let us assume Kyphas managed the death this tool requires and we never discovered that detail—”
“I say we give it what it wants.” We al looked at Lotus, whose face had paled so drastical y she looked like a mannequin before the makeup’s gone on. The starkness of her expression, her absolute certainty amid al our doubt, made her seem more Vayl’s progeny than anything else she’d done so far. “Then we can go, right? Then this whole nightmare wil be over?” I said, “Not necessarily for you, snookums.” I kept my voice gentle as I pointed to Helena and said, “She was a good, honorable woman. And she’s trapped inside, stil being righteous, stil fighting on the side she chose when she was just a girl. You, on the other hand, are stil trying to turn your back on the pile of bul shit you’ve made out of your life when you’re actual y buried under it.” I pointed to the souls that had chosen maiming and torture. “That’s you if you don’t start digging.” I made a fist. “And I’m not helping you make it worse by kil ing someone in this crew.” Astral had been sitting quietly beside Raoul al this time. Now she stood up, looked over at me intently, and then stared at Lotus. “Grenade?” she offered politely, as if she knew exactly how I was feeling and had already figured out a quick way to rid myself of the unwanted company.
