whose spark had nearly suffocated, that what I scented was the rot of a living soul.
Vayl explained, “Jasmine likes to needle people into a murderous rage before she kil s them.
Otherwise she feels it is not a fair fight and the guilt is more difficult for her to bear afterward.”
Roldan’s eyes widened. It wasn’t the first time they’d crossed Vayl’s face. But now I could tel he was seeing the vampire for the first time. “Vasil Brancoveanu,” he hissed. The snakes in the gorgon’s hair echoed him. Only because I was watching closely did I see a fine shudder shake Vayl’s hands in response to the gorgon’s wriggly do. Then he forced himself into stil ness as he lowered his head slightly in acknowledgment. Roldan’s boss lady whispered into his ear, and his head turned until he could see Helena standing between Zel and Raoul, her bowie knife dripping with the gorgon’s blood. He held out both hands. “My Helena.” He walked to the end of his chain but the gorgon held him back. And I realized this little jaunt to hel must’ve been her idea. What was she gaining from it? More juice from a soul that had shriveled to nearly nothing? The fun of torturing her longtime partner by showing him that he real y hadn’t punished Helena after al ? Or was she real y trying to give him a gift by kil ing us al for him? I couldn’t tel .
While I tried to guess her motives, Zel put an arm around Helena’s shoulders and both of them raised their weapons in response to Roldan’s advance. Zel said, “Helena is mine. And I’m hers.
That’s how it’s been for over a hundred and fifty years, and that’s how it’s gonna stay.”
Before I could make sense of the similarity Roldan spun around, nearly tripping over the chain that bound him as he grabbed his gorgon by the shoulders. “Is this why you brought me here, Sthenno? So you could shred my heart into even smal er pieces than you do every single day?” Raoul made a sound, soft enough that it didn’t distract our foes, but loud enough to catch my attention.
“What is it?” I asked softly.
“Sthenno isn’t just any gorgon,” he replied. “She’s one of the original three. Her list of crimes is so long there’s a whole bookcase reserved for her in the Hal of Monitors. But what matters most right now is that she’s the mother of Lord Torledge.”
“Wait. What? The demon who made the Rocenz?
“Exactly. And he despised her, Jaz. I mean, we know of at least two separate occasions when he tried to kil her.”
My brain spun into action. Lord Torledge had crafted the tool I’d defeated Brude with for demon hands, though I’d never been convinced its original purpose was to turn humans into spawn, as Kyphas had attempted with Cole. Or that Torledge had ever imagined humans would be able to reduce demons to their most basic elements with it. As with al magical y imbued items, the Rocenz had shown itself to be ful of unexpected surprises.
What had been predictable was the fact that the Rocenz could separate Sthenno from Roldan, and if that happened they’d both die. Especial y here, where Sthenno had no other wil ing soul to host her. This had to have been why Torledge original y designed the tool, so that he could trap his mother and her dinner partner in hel where whoever was carrying the Rocenz at the time would be forced to vanquish her.
So al Torledge had to do was let the Rocenz be “stolen” and wait for Sthenno to hook herself up with the right partner. Once she’d made the deal with Roldan, and Torledge recognized the Were’s hatred for Vayl, he knew these were final y the perfect circumstances for murder. He just needed to figure out a way to lure them both into his realm. Al owing Roldan to throw Helena into the pit must’ve seemed a bril iant plan, especial y after he managed to hook her up with Zel , the only man on the plane who knew how to operate the Rocenz. After that, al he had to do was add Vayl to the mix, but that turned out to be more difficult than it sounded. Enter Brude, who (probably also manipulated by Torledge) formed a partnership with Roldan. Together the two of them pushed Vayl and me closer and closer to the abyss, until we final y had no other choice than to jump, bringing the Rocenz to hel ’s gate, Zel Culver to the exact spot where he could be of the most help, Helena between Vayl and Roldan, and Sthenno into a no-win situation. Because, despite knowing al about Lord Torledge’s dirty damned dealings now, there was stil no way I was going to let his mother win this battle.
“Fuck me.”
“Jasmine!” This time it was Raoul objecting to my choice of words.
“Sorry, I just think, wherever I look lately, I end up deciding I’m working for the wrong damn people.”
“We can make good come from it.”
“You’re Eldhayr. You’re supposed to believe stuff like that.”
“So are you.”
I thought about that while I watched Roldan confront his gorgon. He’d been yel ing at her for a while. Working himself into a frenzy of spittle-on-the-lip fury because she’d made him witness the love of his life with another man when al the time he’d thought she was in utter misery here. He was outraged that she’d used him so badly over the centuries, leaving his heart-sworn enemy hale and hearty while he had been reduced to little more than a bag of bones under her care.
When I dared a glance at Sthenno, it was to see her staring at him calmly, a smal smile pasted across her paint-me-and-be-instantlyfamous face. Final y two of her snakes sank their fangs into him, one in each shoulder. His knees buckled. She lifted the chain to keep him from fal ing flat on his face. Watching him shudder as his body tried to say uncle and his soul fought to stay at anchor, she final y pul ed him into her embrace, pressing his head between her breasts. It would’ve been a loving gesture in anyone else. But for her it meant convenience, al owing her to reach down his back and claw his shirt up over his shoulders. I winced at the thousands of marks on his back, like unhealed mosquito bites, some of which had turned black and begun to leak a dark, oily fluid that looked like it should never come from a human body.
Sthenno looked down, giving me a chance to scope out her face, which (if you managed to ignore the snakes) seemed to me to be the perfect combination of high cheekbones and pouty lips that every woman dreams of but only plastic surgery pul s off. Even I felt slightly envious at those perfectly sculpted brows and thick black lashes. Until something pink and worm-like emerged from the inner corners of her meet-their-gaze-
