Cheat the Grave

26

“You sure you want to do this?” Io asked when I told her what I wanted. She remained ambivalent at my answering nod, those wide eyes searching, but ultimately shrugged, agreeing to put me under with the same drugs Carlos had previously used to send me to Midheaven. As long as she stayed nearby to pull me back out again, I assured her I’d take care of the rest.

She placed a condition on the favor, though, claiming she wanted to work on my body again since female anatomy had become more or less a novelty to her since joining the cell. Remembering Hunter’s final, desperate kiss, I relented, telling myself her curiosity was professional, not unlike a doctor keeping up on her skills, yet I was still nervous about her fondling my organs…not to mention a little skeeved now that I knew that’s what she was doing.

“Interesting,” she muttered after placing my pancreas back into its natural resting spot. Swallowing hard against the rise of bile in my throat, I rolled my eyes. Really, was there anything this woman wouldn’t touch? “But what’s that doing there?”

“What?” I asked, lifting my head, but she shifted her body to block my view.

“Let’s see if we can’t work it out…”

She rolled her fingers atop, along, and then into my lower abdomen, and I winced as she pulled and stretched in little striated motions, as if plucking harp strings. The motion caused me to alternately tense and relax, and while Buttersnap was lying passed out in her regular position at my right side, one particularly odd movement had me letting out a nauseated groan, causing the giant hound to lift her head and growl-almost like I was an agent of Light.

“Shush, you beast,” Io said, shooing the dog with one hand.

“Ugh,” I said, as she found the center harp string again. “Stop it!”

“No? You want it to stay?” Io asked, though she wasn’t addressing me as much as she was my stomach. “Well, never mind then.”

She then began administering a more traditional massage, the magic of her fingers making fast friends with my fatigue. “Ready?” she asked, and I managed a nod. There was a needle’s pinch at my upper arm, and suddenly I floated, like oil atop water.

“I’ll be right here,” Io whispered from some far-off place. My fingers curled around the object that was as much a part of Midheaven as I was, clutching it to my chest like it was a life preserver. In some ways, I knew, it was.

My soft, velvet thoughts veered sharply then, a roller coaster downslope that plunged my veins into fire. My ears took on a frantic buzz, like I’d stuck my head in a hive as I dropped farther…and then suddenly I was sailing upright, walking on my own two legs through a heavy fog, like a spongy night in London or some other place that wasn’t arid with desert heat. The haze was disconcerting, and I waved a hand before my face to push it away, still “walking” until lights appeared in front of me. The liquid boil of my blood evened out, and my footsteps took on the scratchy reverberation I remembered from my last two mental visits in Midheaven. Once I spotted the outline of a pagoda lantern, the haze dissipated and static electricity whipped around me, the fabric of the world being unzipped.

“Home sweet home,” I muttered, each syllable skipping like a stone, my mouth lined in copper.

The saloon was exactly as I remembered. The long, polished bar stretched before me like a lazy feline, the staircase leading to the elemental rooms to the left, and the board with the myriad Most Wanted posters still staring eerily at me from the far right. Closer to the wall of pagoda lanterns, where I was standing, Sleepy Mac’s piano sat in dust-covered silence, waiting for its owner’s return.

As before, the entire room was devoid of color. Instead a sepia-toned coating washed out everything-the glossy bar, the mirrors reflecting back my hard gaze, the dozen poker tables eating up the room’s middle. The sole exception to this ashen uniformity was a bright, glossy red door with a scrolled gold handle, rimmed in a fierce glow. It was the only thing holding back the heat siphoned from the sun’s core on the other side.

Not that it helped much. Even in my dream I began to sweat. The bartender, Bill, was nowhere to be seen, but a single glass of elegantly cut crystal sat brimming with golden liquid on the otherwise empty bar. Even knowing how the liquid slowed actions and thoughts and time, catching it as if in molasses, I still couldn’t help licking my lips.

There was absolutely nobody else in the room. No washed out men curled about the dozen or so poker tables, bartering for chips containing their personal powers-speed, strength, and soul.

You can still cash in the ones you wo… .

Tripp’s words mocked me because I still didn’t know how.

“Back so soon?”

Solange appeared like a Vegas stage magician, absent one moment and there the next, though I didn’t applaud. Her face was what romance novels would term dewy, her hair pulled back into a slick brown plait, revealing the only adornment I’d ever seen her wear-simple gold chandelier earrings, ones she obviously cherished. She wore a long black coat with gold fur at neck and wrists, shining buttons lining the front to land at mid-calf, where black stiletto boots disappeared beneath the soft hem.

“You learn quickly. Already able to move about in the aetheric of your own accord.” She clapped her gloved hands once. “Bravo.”

“Forgive me if I don’t take a bow,” I said evenly. “That would entail taking my eyes off of you.”

Her jaw clenched, prettily of course, and she tapped her chin with a finger. “I distinctly recall telling you, in no uncertain terms, to leave the Rest House and never return. Did I not?”

“Well, you have something that belongs to me.”

She lifted one slim brow then leaned back on the glossy bar, pushed with her palms, and was sitting crosslegged in an instant. “Just as well. We have some accounts that need settling. Join me for a drink?”

She blinked prettily. I crossed my arms and stayed where I was. The last time I drank something this woman provided, I awoke to her holding a sliver of my soul between a jeweler’s tweezers. “I owe you nothing. You’re the one who threw a shit fit and crushed your pretty glass room. Believe me, I had no desire to be there.”

“Of course you did,” she snapped, and her boots hit the floor. Fuck, she was fast…and her fuse as short as ever. I made a point of staying within reach of the pagoda lantern. “Our truest desires are always revealed in Midheaven.”

Exactly what Shen said. Where the hell had the little bastard gotten to anyway? “Yeah? So how many times has Hunter asked to leave?”

She pursed her lips prettily. “You mean my husband? Jaden?” Her face rearranged into a sweet smile. “Joanna, he came here to find me.”

No, he’d come to find Lola, the daughter she’d saved from the Tulpa and stolen from Hunter by destroying another child’s soul. But no reason to allow I knew that much. Solange’s knowledge of me was already too great, and her next words proved it.

“How’re things in Vegas?”

“I think you know,” I said, jerking my head toward the piano, but not taking my eyes from her.

“Jaden and I have been talking about going back. He’s asked me to marry him again, you know.”

“Before, after, or during the waterboarding?”

She put a black-gloved hand to her chest. “You think he’s here against his will? Dear Joanna. Or should I say Olivia? Look at you and then look at me.”

“Looks are deceiving.”

“Sure,” she agreed, eyeing me narrowly. “But I’m talking about power. It’s what attracted him to me in the first place.”

“Hunter’s not driven by the need for power.”

“But Jaden always has been.”

I shook my head. “No, he wants autonomy.”

She smiled beautifully. “He wants to be ridden into the next world.”

My jaw clenched. “I’m not going to argue with you over who knows him better.”

“Good, as you’ve no grounds to.” She lifted her chin. “He’s with me, isn’t he? Crossing over of his own accord?

And don’t forget, I tasted him first.”

Maybe it was the way she said it, her tone as she bit off that final word, or the quick jerk of her chin as she tossed her hair, but by the time I caught my reflection grinning fully from behind Solange’s back, I knew. “But I’m the one who tasted him last, and that’s what’s got your silk thong in a bunch, isn’t it? He doesn’t love you. He doesn’t even want you. Probably the only man in Midheaven who ever turned you down.”

“The only man anywhere,” she corrected, the bite alive in both her gaze and her voice. “And he didn’t turn me down. Not before you. You have a hold on him, a connection the past can’t sever. And it has nothing to do with who he prefers.”

A soul connection. The aureole tying Hunter to the last third of my soul, then-even between worlds. “And that’s why you wanted me dead.”

“And because freeing the rest of your soul will finally finish my sky.”

I thought about leaving then, just calling out to Io and getting the fuck out of the O.K. Corral because Solange wasn’t just batshit crazy-she had the power to back up batshit crazy. “And what does Hunter think of that?”

She didn’t bother to correct his name this time. “He’s going to love the idea. Soon.”

“I’d like to hear it from him.”

The almost beautiful smile visited her face again. “He’s tied up at the moment.”

And there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.

“Jaden told me they believe you are the Kairos in your world,” she said, like she’d never belonged there. Of course, she’d been here a long time, and despite her earlier taunt, had no desire to return to Las Vegas. Why would she? There, she was a rogue, on the run from both Shadow and Light. Here? A goddess. The Goddess. She crossed her feet at the ankles as she leaned back on the bar again. “It’s why you once told me that you and Tripp were natural enemies, though you weren’t exactly an agent of Light.”

“I’m not the Kairos.”

“Oh, I know.” She smirked but stopped short of saying she had birthed the fabled child, now hidden somewhere in the folds of this alternate reality. “Though there’s something about you. Some power you possess which others don’t. You should have died the last time you were really here.”

“You mean when you threw me down the stairs.”

Solange nodded absently. “You were somehow protected then…and when I tried to sliver away your soul to augment my beautiful night sky. That stone’s deformed. It won’t ever fit.”

“Guess you should give up.”

“Why? I get at least one more try.”

“You’re not getting the last third of my fucking soul,” I said, widening my stance.

“Because you’re still protected.” She sighed, and the sound grated like sandpaper against my spine. “I can feel it.”

Well thank goddess for small miracles, though I remained close to the lantern. She smiled like she found my wariness endearing. “By the way, learn anything more about the constellations since we last met?”

“I’ve been kinda busy,” I replied flatly.

“Then let me tell you about my favorite, Canis Major. It contains a star called Sirius, the brightest in the sky. It’s part of a pattern we call the Winter Triangle.”

“Does this boring diatribe have a point?”

“In gemology,” she continued, shooting me a sly wink, “and you know I’m a fan…in gemology an asterism is an optical phenomenon reflecting the shape of a star on a precious stone’s surface. So you see, I’ve decided a star as remarkable as Sirius needs just such a gem to do it justice in my rendition of the night sky. Something with the right amount of power and heat to fuel that Big Dog. The soul bits you gave upon crossing here twice came close to what I was looking for, but another third and my masterpiece will be completed. And I will finish it, Joanna. Once I do, 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 Hunter was.

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.