Fatal Ties: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 7) Read online

  “Hello.” Isis’s ethereal mother hen voice boomed in my ears. It was weird because she didn’t normally speak to me like this either. What the hell was going on?

  “Hi,” I replied, turning to look at her. She wasn’t actually there. I knew that, but somehow, she stood in front of me with skin so pale, she may as well have been a corpse stuck in cold storage. “This is new.” I gestured at her.

  The air around her shimmered with blue energy as a sad smile quirked across her lips. “I missed you.” She reached out and touched the hand I was using to grip the katana’s hilt. It was like being touched by warm bathwater, and a surge of confidence and relaxation surged through me. “Seeing you is allowed, no?”

  “I suppose,” I said, raising an eyebrow at her. This was getting stranger by the second, and while I wanted to dismiss it, too much had happened during my absence for me to just write it off. “What’s up?”

  “When you meet Thes,” she started and looked at her feet like they were terribly interesting. I suppose they were since they were wreathed in golden sandals decorated with sapphire encrusted scarabs. Man, I needed a pair of golden sandals. Only I had cankles, so they’d just make me cry. I mean, I wouldn’t trade my legs for her tweety bird supermodel ones, but sometimes, I wished I could dress like her.

  “When I meet Thes, what?” I asked, barely resisting the urge to make a “hurry up” gesture at her. I didn’t because she was a goddess, but man, it was a near thing.

  “Tell him I’m sorry for that whole stabbing his girlfriend in the face thing.” She gave me a weak smile.

  “You did what?” I cried as she vanished into the sword. It throbbed in an embarrassed sort of way, something I hadn’t known it could do. So many firsts today.

  When she didn’t whisper sweet nothings in my ear, I realized she wasn’t going to explain herself. That was fine, I was sure Thes would give me an earful. Besides, I hadn’t done it, and if he cared, well, I didn’t have time to deal with his feelings right now. I had a bigger problem. I had no idea where Set, the wakazashi inhabited by the Egyptian Deity of the same name, and the twin to my katana, was.

  That was less than fine because while one magical sword was cool, two were cooler, and if I was going to be facing off against the forces of darkness in an effort to stop the apocalypse and keep this stupid hunk of rock spinning a tad bit longer, I wanted to be cooler than a polar bear’s toenails.

  A surge of blue light spilled from the katana’s edge as I drew the sword from the earth, and a sense of calm I hadn’t felt since I’d lost the blade to Jormungand descended over me. Only it was a patchy sort of calm, reminding me of a quilt missing about half of its squares.

  I took a deep breath, focusing on the weapon, and as I did, the black bangle around my right wrist in the shape of an ouroboros came to life. It slithered down across my fingers and onto the bare hilt of the katana before wrapping around its grip. It was a little weird since I was holding onto the sword at the time, but as the snake settled back into place and the grip fit my fingers like a well-worn glove, I realized I was ready to kick some ass and find my other sword, but maybe not in that order.

  “Hello, Isis. Did you miss me too?” Apep, the Egyptian deity who inhabited the bangles said as it froze into place around the sword.

  Isis did not respond, which was probably for the better since I had the sudden feeling I was being watched. I turned, raising the blade of the katana as I did so. I found myself staring up at a vaguely familiar blond-haired boy about my age. He stood on the lip of the crater, and the way he looked at me was vaguely disconcerting. It was almost like he was studying me and not in a good way.

  His fingers tightened around his own black as night katana, and as my gaze settled onto the blade, my heart nearly leapt into my throat. He was holding Haijiku!

  3

  The grip on my katana tightened as I stared at the guy at the top of the crater. I wasn’t sure who he was or how he’d gotten ahold of Haijiku, the magical sword I’d recovered in Hades, but I was damned sure going to find out. Then I was going to pry it from his cold dead hands. I mean, he could just give it to me, but something told me he wouldn’t. Call it a hunch.

  As I inhaled slowly, I pulled power from Isis, causing blue light to flicker along the blade’s edge so the symbols on the snow white metal lit up like Christmas tree lights. Then I muttered a word and leapt. My magic-fueled muscles sent me out of the crater with relative ease, which was good because my normal muscles were already sore and all I’d done was walk about half a mile. Sigh.

  I landed in front of him and set my face to “I will mess up your whole day and it won’t mean anything to me.” His eyes widened as I casually flicked my left hand toward Haijiku. “Where did you get that?”

  “Most recently? Your dad gave it to me.” The blond looked down at the sword in his hand and watched the butterflies etched into its black metal flit to and fro. That meant he’d awakened Haijiku somehow, but that seemed impossible since he wasn’t a Dioscuri.

  I mean, he could have been, but I would have thought I’d have remembered him if he was. No, while he seemed familiar, he definitely wasn’t a Dioscuri. He was something else, and as I tried to reach out toward him with my power, I found nothing save for a seething endless hunger. That wasn’t good. Not even a little bit. I’d felt everything from fairies to Greek gods, and this guy wasn’t any of those things.

  “Why would he do that?” I asked, searching his face for clues but came up empty. Still, it felt like I’d met him before, like I should remember him. Well, that was annoying. “And what do you mean by ‘most recently?’ Have you gotten it multiple times?”

  “Those big computers in the main office told him to do it. You know, the ones he claims are inhabited by the Greek fates.” He shrugged and gave me a “I just work here” smile. “Before that, you gave it to me.”

  “I did no such thing,” I snapped, ignoring the part where he said the computers wanted him to wield Haijiku. That seemed crazy, but then again, they often suggested things that seemed crazy. Either way, I didn’t give a damn what some broken down computers said. That sword was mine, so I did the only thing I could. I held out my hand palm up and stared at him as hard as I could. “Give Haijiku back to me.”

  “While you may not have been in control of your faculties when you gave me this blade,” he shook his head, and I felt the power of the Emissary stretching like an ancient cat in the weapon. Was he calling on the blade? Surely not. “There’s no way I’m giving it to you.”

  “Or I can just take it from you,” I quipped, annoyance filling my voice. “You have no idea who I am or what I’m really capable of.”

  “That could be,” he said as a sly smile spilled across his lips. “But you also do not know who I am.” Ice began to crackle in the air around us as a chilly gust of wind swept through the city and made gooseflesh sprout on my flesh. “I am Famine.” Ice whipped through the air between us as frost spread across the ground. “And I hunger endlessly. You will not take anything from me.”

  Before I could respond, he held the sword up between us so light played off its darkened edge, and the distinct sound of thousands of rustling wings filled my ears. A sudden wave of panic washed through me. He was calling the Emissary to speak to me. How was that possible? Even I couldn’t have done that, and I was pretty damned gifted in the whole “talking to spirits through your weapons” arena.

  “Pleased to see you again, Lillim,” the Emissary said in its “the prince of darkness is my bitch” voice. “Been awhile.”

  “It has,” I said very carefully. Okay, that wasn’t true. I didn’t actually speak out loud because I’d have just looked like I was talking to myself and who needs that brand of crazy. No, I just reached out toward Haijiku with my mind.

  “I’m staying with Ian,” it said as the Emissary’s familiar cheshire cat grin filled my mind’s eye. “He’s going to let me eat Loki and all his minions. I know you can promise more, but your promises have a way of endi
ng up unfulfilled. As I recall, you still owe me a dragon.” That was actually true. I had promised I’d let him eat a dragon, and thus far, I hadn’t delivered. I could see how that’d be irksome from his point of view. Still, I wasn’t Domino’s.

  “While that’s a valid point,” I replied. “I—”

  A sudden blast of cold grabbed me, chilling me in a way that was far beyond what normal snow and ice could do.

  “Don’t you dare try to take me, or I’ll eat you instead.” The Emissary looked me up and down, and I got the distinct feeling he was sizing me up. That wasn’t good because the last thing I needed right now was to get into a fight. I was at least three cheeseburgers from being able to throw down with Haijiku. “As it stands now, I bet I can do it before you can blink three times. Wanna find out?”

  “No,” I replied, shaking my head. It wasn’t that I was scared exactly. No, it was more that trying to control a sword that didn’t want to help me would be pointless. Dioscuri weapons only provided help if the spirit and the user were aligned. That wouldn’t happen with the Emissary like this. Besides, I had Isis, and I somehow doubted the two weapons would play nicely together. The best thing I could do was trust in the computers. I wasn’t sure what this guy’s deal was, but if they wanted him to use Haijiku, well, I’d have to trust them. For now.

  “Excellent.” The Emissary smirked at me, and the laughter on his face sent another chill zipping across my flesh. “Find me when this is all over Lillim, you promised me a dragon, and I plan to collect.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed aloud as it vanished from my mind which made my cry about as useful as yelling into a telephone after someone had hung up. Well, that was just perfect.

  “What did it tell you?” Ian asked, glancing at Haijiku as a particularly adventurous monarch butterfly landed on the tip of the weapon and flapped its wings twice. Ian watched the insect for a while before his eyes dropped to the weapon in his hand, giving me the distinct impression the Emissary was talking to him. He wasn’t a Dioscuri. He shouldn’t have been able to communicate with Haijiku, but there it was.

  “He says you’re going to let him eat Loki and all the denizens of Hell, and while I might allow him a feast fit for the queen of crows herself, it’s not even on par.” I let out a slow breath and anger I hadn’t realized I’d felt, vanished along with it. “That’s not a very nice sword you have here. It’s killed millions. Sure, most of them deserved to die, but you can’t take that much life without it twisting you a little bit.”

  “I think I’ll be okay,” Ian replied, even though I could tell from the look on his face he didn’t believe it.

  “I believe you believe that, but remember, sometimes letting go of power is the right thing to do. Sometimes it hurts to give up what we’ve fought so hard for. In the end, strength is only as good as the hand who wields it.” I bit my lip. “Right now, I think Haijiku, even though it is mine, is better served in your hand.” I reached out before I could stop myself and touched his cheek with my hand. As I did, I realized he’d been locked in my dream world and had tried to warn me. I wasn’t sure if it had really been him, but I sort of wanted to think it was. “Thanks for trying to warn me by the way.”

  “If I said I have no idea what you’re talking about, would you believe me?” Ian replied, pulling away from me, which was when I realized I’d been touching him. I barely even touched my boyfriend, so why had I touched him? Yeah, it was pretty sad, I know. What can I say? I had never been into that touchy feely stuff.

  “Yes.” I smiled because I was pretty sure if I explained why I was thanking him, I’d seem insane, and I’d had just about enough of trying to prove I was sane. Besides, I didn’t need his acceptance.

  “So why were you down in the crater?” Ian asked, gesturing at the broken glass below. “Seems like a dangerous place for a nap.”

  “I was trying to see if I could hear my other sword.” I held my katana out in front of myself. “It’s the twin to this one. Last time I lost them, they found their way back to the crater, but unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. I couldn’t even hear the faintest trace of my blade’s presence. Whatever Jormungand did to that blade has hidden it from my senses. It almost makes me want to find his corpse and kick it around, you know, if I wanted to go back to the place where I was possessed and forced to murder innocent people while trapped in a dream world designed to make me think I’m crazy.”

  “Yeah, I’d pass on that,” Ian replied, and the look in his eyes became far off and distant for a second. “I was possessed by Jormungand only briefly, but even that was enough to make me kill one of my best friends.”

  My shoulders sagged because I remembered watching myself beat him to a living pulp while I’d been possessed. It was a miracle I hadn’t killed anyone.

  “Is that so?” I asked, thankful I didn’t have to deal with that kind of guilt.

  “You know, it’s not your fault, right?” Ian said as pain spread across his face. He took a step closer to me and invading my personal space. “I know I felt like it was my fault, and sometimes I still do, but…”

  “You know, I don’t believe you at all, but I still like hearing it.” And because he looked like a sad puppy and had been trying to comfort me, I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. As soon as I did it, my cheeks flushed. Why had I done that?

  “Ian, can you come to the control room right now?” my dad’s voice boomed, and Ian turned toward the sound at the same time I did. My dad was no longer standing there. Instead a hologram of him stood there, he looked like Obi-Wan Kenobi minus all the cool Jedi stuff. My father had a smile on his lips that told me he’d seen me kiss Ian on the cheek and it amused him. “We have a major problem.”

  4

  As Ian turned to go, I moved to follow him, mostly because I was curious as to what my father wanted. Before I could make it even a few steps, however, something exploded against my senses like a stick of dynamite. I stumbled while simultaneously trying to turn toward whatever was coming and raise my katana.

  Whatever this was felt strong. Power radiated outward as it approached with all the finality of a giant meteor. This was not the kind of power I’d felt when fighting gods. No, this felt dark and malevolent. This felt like destruction given form, and it was coming straight toward me. Fast.

  “Ian,” I called as he disappeared from view. He hadn’t so much as shot a backward glance at the source of our coming destruction. Could he not feel this coming toward us, or did he just not care? I wanted to know, but not as much as I wanted to not be here when whatever this was showed up. I mean, okay, I was tough, but whatever this was, well, it scared the crap out of me. Still, I wasn’t going to let it take me without a fight. If there was any chance of stopping it, no matter how small, I had to take it.

  I swallowed hard, took a look around, and sprinted toward the gates of Lot as quickly as I could. My heart pounded in my chest as I ran with everything I had. If I could make it inside the gates before this thing arrived, I could call upon whatever residual power lay stored in the magical city. I’d done it before, and I could do it again.

  To be fair, I wasn’t sure it’d work, nor was I sure how much strength was still stored in the runes augmenting the lay lines crisscrossing the city’s streets, but at the moment I didn’t have a choice. There was no way this thing wasn’t showing up on the sensors, but my dad had called Ian away, anyway. Did that mean he thought I could handle it?

  I wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but come Hell or high water, I was going to find out. Besides, what kind of Dioscuri would I be if I ran away? I gritted my teeth and tightened my grip on Isis’s hilt as my foot touched the cobblestones lining the entryway into the city and thanked my lucky stars the gate was open. Well, not open so much as it was missing.

  The hinges of the metal gate were twisted, making me think the gate itself had been torn off in a battle, but I hadn’t remembered that happening. Had this happened while I’d been asleep? I wasn’t sure, but
right now, I was just glad it was down because I didn’t have time to open it.

  As I whirled around to face the oncoming power, I sucked in a breath and concentrated. My lungs expanded as I pulled power through the city’s streets causing the runes laid among the cobbles to glow like fireworks on the Fourth of July.

  Magic surged up through my feet and crackled along my skin like electricity. It filled me up like a water balloon, and even though I shouldn’t have done so, I kept pulling power into me until I was fit to burst. My vision tunneled down the center, and my head began to pound as I raised my katana and prepared to release it all the second whatever this was touched down. Hopefully, that happened before I exploded.

  “Go away!” I called, pointing my crackling katana at the figure as it landed on the blackened dirt a few feet in front of me.

  He wasn’t super tall, standing only about a foot taller than me, and I was five-foot nothing. He took a step forward, and as he did, I realized he didn’t seem terribly menacing. No, whoever this was lacked the confidence that usually came with being as strong as he felt. Interesting, but not enough to keep me from blasting him.

  His dark cloak billowed around him as he raised his hands up in front of him in that universal “I mean you no harm” gesture, and instead of coming toward me, he raised his head and met my eyes. As he did it, my heart nearly stopped.

  “Connor?” I asked, and as I said his name, he smirked at me and finger-combed his badly-dyed green hair out of his face.

  “Hey, Lillim.” He looked me up and down, making no effort to show he liked what he saw. I hate to say it, but I liked it a touch more than I should have. “Been a while.”

  “How the hell are you here?” I asked, shaking my head in disbelief as I let the magic I’d gathered dissipate. It flowed back out of me and into the city like rainwater, and as it did, a wash of cold air swept over me. Calling that much power is never super fun, and the aftereffects hit me like a wrecking ball. My stomach twisted and my vision went hazy. Still, I fought those sensations down. This was my city after all, and it wouldn’t allow me to fall.